Time Trial League - Rd22 - Yas Marina

Welcome to the final round of our Time Trial League. It's been a truly fantastic championship, we've seen some really tight battles, we've seen some controversy but ultimately, we've all had a lot of fun. It's almost sad to see the end of a season, but it's good to have a bit of a break. 

The final round takes place at the Yas Marina circuit. There's no updates to the 2021 version in GP4 yet, so we're on the classic version of the track, created by F1 Virtual

It's been a really busy few weeks for me, so sadly I haven't had time to enter this round, but I would have really enjoyed this last chance to blast around this track. So I'll be joining you as a spectator for this round. As always, thanks to Carl for putting the video together. Clearly I went home early and left the trophy on the car. 

We have more wheel users this round, Carl as always, Prblanco and 32bobo32 joins in with his new wheel set up. Unfortunately his set up still needs some adjustments still and we're hoping he'll get them all sorted for next season. Prblanco did submit a lap on the keyboard as well, but it was two seconds off the pace from his other lap. 

0:09 - The first corner is a rather innocuous 90-degree corner, but it leads into quite a long flat-out section. It's really about getting a good exit and not losing too much time here. Gildoorf and Prblanco shoot into an early lead. Prblanco is slightly ahead through turns 3 and 4, but Gildoorf brakes much later into turn 5 and is slightly ahead. Kerley is in third right now, just ahead of 32bobo32 and Carl. 

The first sector beam is really kind of pointless here, but here's confirmation of the running order. 

1	Gildoorf	00:15.884	+0.000
2	Prblanco	00:15.895	+0.011
3	KerleyF1	00:16.238	+0.354
4	32bobo32	00:16.381	+0.497
5	Carl_gpgames	00:16.506	+0.622

0:24 - It's noticable how much kerb the wheel users can take, and all three of them make great gains on the keyboard runners here, with Kerley in particular losing out in this tight twisty section. 

The speed-trap is at the end of the long straight before turn 8 where Kerley is able to claw back some of that deficit, whilst also explaining why he was struggling so much in the slower corners. 

1	KerleyF1	335.6	0
2	Gildoorf	325.4	-10.2
3	Prblanco	317.5	-18.1
4	Carl_gpgames	317.3	-18.3
5	32bobo32	314.3	-21.3

Gildoorf is also carrying much less wing that the others, but nowhere near as little as Kerley's. That advantage gifts Gildoorf back the lead from Prblanco, whilst 32bobo32 is only a fraction ahead of Carl. 

Prblanco and Carl get their braking just right, taking lots of kerb at the apex. 32bobo32 is carrying way too much speed and is understeering like crazy through this chicane, having to get out of the throttle at the point he should be nailing it. He's almost running too wide on the exit as Kerley sneaks up behind him. 

1:07 - There's not really been any corners of interest to talk about yet, and we've done two sectors. 

1	Gildoorf	00:43.601	+0.000
2	Prblanco	00:44.146	+0.545
3	32bobo32	00:44.485	+0.884
4	Carl_gpgames	00:44.555	+0.954
5	KerleyF1	00:44.917	+1.316

With those long straights, Gildoorf puts his set up to great use as he eeks out his lead, but will the wheel users with their bigger rear wings be able to haul Gildoorf in through the final sector? Perhaps surprisingly, Kerley doesn't set a particularly good sector despite his top speed advantage, I suspect he's really going to struggle in S3. 

Overall after S2, here is the running order and gaps.

1	Gildoorf	00:59.485	+0.000
2	Prblanco	01:00.041	+0.556
3	32bobo32	01:00.866	+1.381
4	Carl_gpgames	01:01.061	+1.576
5	KerleyF1	01:01.155	+1.670

The now non-existent turns 11-12-13 and 14 are a series of tight corners and a chicane, which Gildoorf effortlessly dances through with aggression and speed. He is driving beautifully as he has done all season. Prblanco lines up his car well, but could be much more aggressive with the speed he can take through there. 32bobo32 is using lots of kerb when he's not overshooting the corner and is testing all the track limits as the kerb finishes in turn 13 and 14. Carl looks like he's on a leisurely Sunday drive, whilst Kerley struggles to find the limit on his way through. 

1:19 - Turns 15 and 16 are flat as you prepare to brake for the tight section around the hotel. Gildoorf lines himself up nicely through turn 17, as does Prblanco. 32bobo32 is locked in a battle with Carl, as he once again aggressively understeers, using as much kerb as he can. Kerley nearly loses it, going too deep into the corner. 

Prblanco is keeping Gildoorf honest here, and he's hoping he can make some gains using the wheel in this sector. Gildoorf is visibly closer to the limit, carrying great speed through the double left handers, whilst Prblanco shows us how to drive with only an inch of your wheel on the white line and be within track limits. Carl continues to close down 32bobo32 as he neatly takes the left hand bends, whilst 32bobo32 forgets about the right hand side of the track on the exit of turn 19. Kerley also neatly drives through this section. 

1:38 - We're into the final two turns, and they are deceptively tricky and you can gain lots of time here. Turn 20 is super fast, but you have to be brave and super committed, as Gildoorf usually is, using all the exit kerb available. Prblanco, whilst keeping Gildoorf honest, just does not have the same confidence through here. It's not going great for 32bobo32, who is starting to look lost... it's like he leaps to surprise that a corner has suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Kerley takes a good amount of speed in, but is hesitant to get the power back on again on the exit. 

The final turn is an opportunity for Prblanco to gain on Gildoorf, but he's too far gone as the two cross the finish line. Carl runs a bit wide in the final turn, but it doesn't matter, because 32bobo32 is having another shocking final sector, as Kerley begins to close in on him. 

Across the line they go. 

1	Prblanco	00:43.553	+0.000
2	Gildoorf	00:43.724	+0.171
3	Carl_gpgames	00:45.829	+2.276
4	32bobo32	00:46.605	+3.052
5	KerleyF1	00:48.078	+4.525

Prblanco sets the purple sector times rather unsurprisingly, but its Gildoorf who is able to keep the gap down to under two-tenths of a second, doing heroics on the keyboard once more. There's a massive gulf between the leading duo and the chasing pack which Carl leads through sure and steady driving, ahead of 32bobo32. We expected Kerley to struggle, but he's lost 4.5 seconds in this sector alone. 

The overall times are:

1	Gildoorf	01:43.209	+0.000
2	Prblanco	01:43.594	+0.385
3	Carl_gpgames	01:46.890	+3.681
4	32bobo32	01:47.471	+4.262
5	KerleyF1	01:49.233	+6.024

Gildoorf closes out the season with his second straight win, a classy drive to close out the season. Prblanco is competitive here, but is unable to extract the most out of the wheel to really challenge for the win. I'm sure he'll be happy with the second place finish, his first in that position this year, with a relatively small gap to the winner. Congratulations to Carl for his third podium finish of the year, despite being at the back of the pack at the end of the first sector. He'll enjoy beating 32bobo32 for the first time since Turkey. Further back 32bobo32 once again falters in the final sector, having run quite strongly for over half the lap. Kerley enjoyed a good first sector, and will enjoy two points for completing the rest of the lap. 

Carl: "Congratulations to @Gildoorf to win our last race of the season! @Prblanco was following closely and deserves his P2! for myself, i'm happy to score another podium. 🙂 🍾🍾🍾

It's been an amazing season, thanks to all of you @Fongu, @Gildoorf, @Prblanco, @32bobo32, @Kerley F1, @Duffer! Let's do it again!"

Fongu: "Congrats on another excellent victory @Gildoorf"

Gildoorf: "Thanks, @Carl_gpgames. Flawless lap, congrats for another well deserved podium, mate! @Prblanco, amazing performance recovering a lot of ground at Yas Hotel section. It was a fantastic first TTL Season, what a great achievement from all of us! Now looking forward 2022 Contest, let's go!"  

32bobo32: "Congratulation mates! A really nice Championship! My First One ever!" 

Prblanco: "It seems I finally got my second place 😆" 

And just like that, the season is over. You'd think we'd all be on top form, having had over 20 rounds to hone our skills and put on a really good show for the final round. That was the case for two of the competitors, but the driving standards of the others speaks more of a need for a break! 

Final Standings 

Thanks to Prblanco for this lovely graphic as we close out the season. 

With 14 wins from 22 rounds, never finishing lower than second the championship, the table says I rather dominated it. The reality was that there was only a few rounds where that was the case, but there were some hard fought victories in there, some of them I'm quite proud of. 

Gildoorf takes a commanding second place finish, deserving of more than just four victories. He's the only one to use the keyboard at all rounds, being competitive in all of them, never failing to finish on the podium. Only two of those podium finishes were third places, which speaks of the great quality on displayed on every type of track we visited. An incredible performance, exemplified with his fine victories at the tail end of the year. 

Prblanco had a rollercoster kind of a year, with four victories and six other podium finishes. But he did finish in the bottom two on five occassions, as he flip flopped between using the keyboard and a steering wheel. A lot of the credit to the wonderful tracks we raced on this year has to go to Prblanco, especially newly updated tracks at Imola, Zandvoort and Losail this season, as well as small updates on previous works unmentioned. Good cc-lines ensured that keyboard players had a chance and that can't be understated how valuable that is to the competition. 

32bobo32 has given us lots of joy over the season and boasts eight third place finishes. We lose count of how many times he looked competitive only to throw it away with a dodgy sector here or there. We hope he gets his wheel working properly and we look forward to more battles in the next one. 

Carl ends the season on a high with a podium finish. Ever smooth on the wheel and pedal application, there's been a few glimpses of how fast that style can be. This championship would not be anywhere near as fun, and these reports would certainly not exist, without his dedication to making the videos and motivating us all to compete. 

Whilst Kerley has spent a lot of time at the back of the pack, there's been visible improvements in competitiveness, after taking on board advice and putting it into practice. Two podiums mid-season in Russia and Turkey were most definitely highlights, as well as nearly getting on the podium in his home race in Brazil. He's also competed in every round, not all of us could say that. 

Duffer competed fairly regularly at the beginning of the year, showing some great pace at a few rounds, and nearly getting the victory in Montreal. It's a shame he never had the motivation or time to do more rounds, but we look forward to him getting his new wheel and pedals setup in time for next season. 

I just wanted to thank all the guys for kindly inviting me into this competition, for your dedication in creating these great tracks so that I can beat you at them. But seriously, it's not been an easy year for anyone and it's good to have some good-natured fun and banter as we all found new ways to enjoy this 20-year old game. I hope you've enjoyed following along as we head off for a bit of a break. Expect some shake ups to the format when we return next season when we do this all over again.