Time Trial League - Rd 1 - Sakhir

I was really honoured to be asked to be involved in a Time Trial League with my friends at F1 Virtual. I may not have time to enter every round, but I hope to enter as many as I can. The first round was in Sakhir, Bahrain just before the real GP. Prblanco has done a new dat file based on the 2020 circuit, and it's excellent. We are all using the base game performance, power and physics with only basic setup changes allowed (wing angles, brake bias and gear ratios) and starting with 10 laps of fuel.

For me, I've been doing a fair bit of time-trialing on Real Racing 3, a mobile game which features 2019 and 2020 F1 cars, and I am usually just about in the top 0.5% tier range, albeit upwards of 0.5 seconds from the ultimate pace depending on the track. But Real Racing 3 has it's own quirks that you learn to use to your advantage, particularly with kerbs and track limits which can be liberally used if you know where they are.

But for GP4, I've been modding so much, I don't actually get too much time to actually play it, let alone try and perfect my laps. And generally if you touch a kerb in GP4, you are sent spinning off. My starting point was to do a fair few laps on the keyboard. It was very much to set a base line, as I know I can get a pretty reasonable lap out of the keyboard. Driving on the keyboard is very much dependent on how good a cc-line is for a given track, and Prblanco is a master at it, so no real issues there. However, there are a few parts that are tricky. 

Braking through turn 9 and hitting the apex in turn 10 is not easy, you have to be quite precise to get the best line through there. You can lose an awful lot of time there with the slightest error. And then into turn 13 is also difficult, again  you need to be precise to carry as much speed through without running wide. With that I was able to set a time of 1:33.844. I was pretty pleased with the lap, I was aiming for a sub 1:34 time, but I knew that Gildoorf had set a time, also on keyboard, of 1:33.694, so I was a little disappointed not to match it. 

Next up was an attempt on the wheel. There are certain advantages to using a wheel and there are certain tracks where it takes seconds off your time, but I found on this track at least, that it was about the same as using the keyboard. But maybe that's my inexperience at using a wheel on GP4. I only had a few hours and though I got close, I only actually beat my keyboard time once, by 2 tenths with a 1:33.653. Amazingly, it was just a whisker ahead of Gildoorfs time, so I was really pleased with that. 

And that's how things stood, and Carl has put together a great video with all our laps in a grid. It's a really good way to analyse corner by corner where your strengths and weaknesses are. 

The first thing to notice at the end of the first straight is that we are running different wing levels, with 32bobo32 and gildoorf running the most downforce and therefore slower at the end of the straight (this will be crucial later) and Carl running the lowest wing angle. 

Coming out of turns 1,2 and 3, it's 32bobo32 who has a slight lead just ahead of me and Gildoorf. Down the straight into turn 4, and it's 32bobo32 leading with me, Prblanco and Kerley close behind. Into turn 4, and there's a bump on the inside of the corner in the dat, but I felt I could compensate for it on the wheel and take the tightest line. Coming to the first sector line and it's close:

1. Fongu - 27.026
2. Gildoorf - 27.051
3. 32bobo32 - 27.064
4. Prblanco - 27.159
5. Kerley - 27.376
6. Carl - 27.615

Turns 5, 6 and 7 are neck and neck between the top 4. Everyone hits the apex at turn 8, with Gildoorf making the most of his extra downforce and taking a wide exit with an extra 6-8 kph. Everyone manages turn 10 very well, although I carry a bit too much speed and run a little wide and Carl catches up to the pack. 

Gildoorf is first to turn 11 and carries a lot of speed around the corner, but one of the advantages of the wheel is that I can have greater steering angle and carry a bit more speed in, though it does scrub off with too much angle, which is what happens to Carl. 

Running order at Sector 2:

1. Gildoorf - 1:07.506
2. Fongu - 1:07.653
3. 32bobo32 - 1:07.850
4. Prblanco - 1:08.388
5. Carl - 1:09.035
6. Kerley - 1:11.172

Coming out of the turn 13 and its a two horse race at the front with Gildoorf ahead of me. Coming out of the final corner, and Gildoorf is franctionally ahead of me with 32bobo32 not too far behind. Prblanco and Carl are also very close together whilst Kerley also takes the final corner cleanly. If you were to pause the video around 1:38 where the real start finish line is, you'll see that it is dead even between Gildoorf and me, but crucially, I'm travelling an extra 3kph faster with my lower wing angle. When we cross the line, I'm running 5kph faster which gave me a the smallest of victory margins, out dragging Gildoorf to the finish line having come out the final corner clearly behind. 

Final Lap Times: 

1. Fongu - 1:33.658
2. Gildoorf - 1:33.694
3. 32bobo32 - 1:34.088
4. Prblanco - 1:35.286
5. Carl_gpgames 1:35.440
6. Kerleyf1 - 1:38.456

Incredibly close racing, I enjoyed it immensely, and super happy with the result and the last gasp victory.