This was such an up and down race for me, that despite it being quite entertaining and exciting, left me disappointed as I had pace to finish at least 3rd in the Gordini. Qualifying went really well, with a new PB, and I was happy with the setup.

At the start I realized I had much lower fps with more cars around, for whatever reason (I suspect because I had switched to Direct3D for this one), down to about 25-30. It made judging the speed difficult and I was getting distracted by that and talking on the stream, which in turn led to my mistake on lap 2 under braking for T3. Enrique went off ahead of me in exactly the same manner, so I just bumped into him as we slid off the road into the fence. It helped him straighten his car so he could continue immediately, but I dropped all the way to last (or about).

From then on it was quite interesting catching up to people and trying to figure out where and how to overtake them, as it seemed I was braking earliest than everyone else, even others in the Gordini. The fps issue was ever present, going down when more cars were closer to me and/or in my mirrors, but I almost managed to adapt to it.

I had some nice battles with Clive, and after half distance I was now chasing a pack of 3 cars in 4th to 6th place, with Dimi in 3rd not too far ahead. Unfortunately Fulvio span around, Phil slowed down to avoid him and I couldn't avoid making contact with him from behind, which sent me sideways into the grass.

With a few laps left I managed to recover somewhat and overtake Jonny with 2 to go, but then almost lost it completely coming out of the last corner on the penultimate lap. He got ahead of me going into T2, but I took back the position on the inside and finished in 6th.

Congrats to Evil for the amazing pace! I remember him lapping me and was thinking what is this Gordini suddenly flying like that (because of the similar coloring), but it turned out it was a Maserati!  Congrats to Enrique and Dimi for 2nd and 3rd respectively!

LOL I was quite worried going between you guys like that, but I had to take the chance as Dimi was right behind and it was the final lap. Didn't even realize how close we were there either!

Burt! Back to GPL too? 

Thanks, Dimi, though it was Clive who got the fastest lap!

What an exciting race, especially the way it finished! Earlier in the day I was unsure whether to go with the regular W196 or the SL, but imagining how it would be very difficult to overtake the SL once it's in front of someone, even if they're faster in the corners, made me go with it instead of the other. My suspicion was proved right during the race!

Qualifying was all about who got the most slipstream, and I got lucky to take pole by just 1 hundred of a second. I don't know how Enrique did it, but his time in the Lancia was incredible, as was his pace during the race too. The best I could do with that car when I tested it yesterday offline was a mid 04...

I had a decent start and stayed in 1st, but it was soon clear that I won't be escaping away and that Enrique is much quicker in the corners. As long as I didn't mess it up though, it was going to be very difficult for him go through, so I wasn't worried too much. After some laps there came a moment where he had a really good run going into T1 and I decided not to contest it, so he took the lead, but lost it on the next straight because of the top speed difference of the SL compared to his Lancia.

Soon after this I noticed another Mercedes SL closing in 3rd place and one of my viewers told me it's Dimi! He eventually overtook Enrique and after that we spent many times working together to try and not impede each other too much. Whenever one of us was attacking, the other would lift up the throttle a little bit so we don't enter the corners side by side. It worked fairly well, though there was one moment where we both lifted up going into T1 lol. I imagine it was quite frustrating for Enrique to not be able to capitalize even from that mistake.

It was such a shame to see him disconnect though, so now it was just myself and Dimi running at the front. With the massive slipstream though, it didn't take long for Clive to join the battle, but again similarly as with Enrique, he couldn't do much about our SLs. I had a moment in one of the laps where Clive was on my inside, in my blind spot, and I didn't dare turn, so taking the outside line allowed Dimi to escape a little bit ahead. Even that was fine though, as the slipstream gradually got me closer to him again.

After about half race distance Dimi switched to driving more defensively and eventually found a way to always remain ahead. As much as I tried, there was just no way to overtake around the outside of corners. The race was almost over and I had just about settled for 2nd, when in the distance I noticed we were catching up to 3 backmarkers fighting together (Phil, Jonny and Evil, apparently). I was still thinking they would benefit Dimi more as he would be catching their slipstream first.

With 2 to go we were at about 300 meters behind them and I could feel the slipstream effect already on the back straight, as Dimi took his defensive line again towards the infield of the track. When we exited T4 to finish the penultimate lap, he again moved left and this gave me exactly what I needed - slipstream from the trio ahead, who were now even closer! I managed to overtake Dimi before T1 and then somehow navigate my way through the 3 drivers ahead as we exited T2!

From there on I just had to keep it clean, as the gap to Dimi seemed sufficient enough. I almost messed up T3, but Dimi did the same it seems, so aI had just enough gap out of T4 to stay ahead until the finish!

Congrats to Dimi for a great race and 2nd place, and Clive for 3rd!

To add to that, in the race please don't block and defend like it's the last lap of the race. It's much better on ovals (and in general with slipstream tracks like Spa, Monza, etc., as you know) to work together and not impede each other. It's not fatal if you give up a position and it's much better to just drive predictably, allow yourself to be overtaken so you can overtake again after 1-2 corners. Leave the defensive and aggressive driving for the final few laps when everything is decided.

That's even more impressive, Evil! Not only resisting Jonny's unwavering pursuit through the whole race, but having to deal with fuel saving too!  


Thanks, Clive, but I still feel I have a lot to learn. I'm not comfortable enough to throw the cars around to aid with the braking like Evil is doing and I'm not exactly sure how to use the brakes yet when they're not in the red. On some laps it works out better than on others, so consistency is still lacking.

Could only finish 6th, but it was more or less the best I could hope for, considering I only tested qualifying runs and it showed. I should stop doing that, as again I spent the first half of the race trying to figure out the braking points and how to drive the car with no brakes.

Qualifying itself went better than expected, with a low 37 without slipstream, which surprised me. I changed to the shorter gears Jon suggested, but he still had a better start and managed to overtake me at T1. I could attack at the hairpin while we still had brakes working, but decided not to take any risks. Unfortunately an off at the same corner a lap later dropped me to 7th, 5 seconds behind Fulvio. I managed to keep that gap the same for a while, but then shifted down to neutral instead of 1st going into the chicane, and when I changed up to 1st again, the rear end locked up and I barely caught it going into the grass. Another 2 seconds lost, so I was now over 7 behind Fulvio.

From there on I gradually managed to figure things out and initially keep the gap constant, then reduce it bit by bit. The race was reaching its end so there wasn't much time left to close in on Fulvio and overtake him, but once I caught his slipstream, it accelerated things, figuratively and literally. The problem was though that now I had even longer braking zones because of the slipstream and I didn't want to risk hitting him, so I was just bidding my time.

With a few laps to go Fulvio messed up T1 a little bit so I went to the inside for the next flat out right hander. I knew it was a bit of a naughty move as you don't normally overtake there, but I just wanted to pressure him.   I eased off to make sure I keep the inside line, but he went off into the grass and so I was through. This didn't last long though - a mistake a lap later and he was side by side on the exit of the first hairpin and took back the position. He messed up the chicane though, cutting across the grass and I knew that would send him wide as he rejoined the track, so I slowed down more and attacked on the inside as soon as it happened. It was just enough to overtake him and with a good exit off the final corner while Fulvio lost the rear on acceleration, I only had to do the final lap to bring it home! I enjoyed the chase and the battle, so overall it was a good race, considering.

Congrats to Evil for an amazing victory and keeping the very fast Jonny behind through the whole distance! I watched the replay on fast forward at the end of my stream and not only was Evil spectacular in the way he was constantly taking the corners sideways with opposite lock, but he somehow managed to resist the pressure from start to finish!  

Yes, we actually discussed it before the race here in this thread. Dave posted this link which contains several fixes:

https://gpladdons.the-fastlane.co.uk/trackaddons_list.php?q=(TrackID~equals~221)

Good points, Evil, and I agree! It's always a guessing game for both drivers and it gets even more complicated when you have 3 or 4 involved, like we had yesterday. I was quite scared in some moments with several cars arriving at speed towards the Stadium. You brake late, you risk hitting the car in front. You brake early, you risk getting hit from behind. It requires everyone to forget about getting an advantage and just lift up earlier than potentially possible.

My Lancia in particular was going through its yellow brake temperature range in just half a second or so. Even when I had seemingly green brakes down the straight, it would fade away completely so fast under braking...

I like the fading effect, as it adds an extra dimension to racing, but I wish it wasn't so extreme and that it didn't have only 3 distinct levels, but be a more gradual change (which I assume is how it was in real life).

I think that happened twice, though the first time was more dramatic, when you lost the brakes entering the stadium. I saw it happen in my mirrors though, so I slowed down more and stayed around the outside, waiting for you to drift through.   Then on the very last lap going into the penultimate corner I saw you carrying more speed so I intuitively turned more to the inside and I think you at the same time straightened it a bit more, so contact was avoided. (You can see both situations on my stream recording)

In these cars it seems 30-40% of the equation is the driver in front paying attention to the mirrors and trying to give room if possible whenever someone behind misjudges their braking, otherwise it's almost impossible to avoid contact in certain situations.


He had to skip this one.

Congrats to Jonny for the victory, it was well deserved after being not only so fast, but making almost no mistakes and being so consistent through the whole race!

I was a bit disappointed in qualifying as I couldn't improve on my PB from testing, but even if I did, it wouldn't have been enough to challenge Jonny for pole. Just before the race start I made some changes to the setup, but as I soon found out they didn't work as expected and made the handling of the car worse.

I had an OK start and even though the revs dropped too much, I managed to stay in 2nd through T1. From then on it was a continuous slipstream battle with everyone, as well as desperately trying to slow down the car with fading brakes and avoiding accidents. The slipstream in particular was so strong that some people who started further back were suddenly making their way towards the top 2 positions, so it was difficult to navigate the traffic, especially in the stadium sections. I saw some contacts, cars spinning around or going off, going side by side into slow corners, etc., which combined with my own misjudged braking points and taking it to the grass dropped me away from Jonny and after that away from Jon and Enrique too.

T1 was particularly problematic and took me a while to figure out, but then I also had very bad understeer combined with a snapping rear end whenever I put the power down, even at the fast T2. Evil eventually appeared in my mirrors and was trailing along, even trying to overtake here and there, but I had decent top speed to stay ahead plus he was sensible and slotted behind before corners.

After half race distance I was finally able to go more consistently and the gap to 3rd was slowly coming down. Just when it was looking good for a 3 or 4 way battle for 2nd place, Jon and Enrique made contact at the stadium section and suddenly disappeared! For a moment I thought it was my connection, but then realized they must have CTDed, for not installing the track fix. I was disappointed to see them retire like that as I was looking forward to that fight, but also relieved as now I just needed to bring it home. Shockingly, Jonny was already 12 seconds into the lead at this point!  

Evil apparently had other ideas though and the slipstream (which I noticed still worked somewhat even when I was over 2 seconds behind another car) helped him recover the gap that I had opened before that. I noticed he was getting very close on each lap before the stadium, but not attacking, so I suspected he's preparing something for the last lap. Fortunately on that final lap I managed to take T2 really well and increase the gap on the following straight, but once we entered the stadium he was right behind again and this time I had to just drive defensively to stay ahead. I think we almost made contact under braking for the penultimate corner, but got away with it and so I finished 2nd. Congrats to Evil for 3rd!

All in all a fun and unusual race, especially the first 1/3rd of the race distance. I imagine the next race at East London is going to be more similar to Brands with constantly faded brakes. See you all then!

Thanks Dave and Phil!

I think the checkpoint test from GPL gives too many false detections, even if you just touch the grass a little bit with a single wheel, like it happened at round 1. I agree that it should be discussed individually for each track and perhaps keep those notes somewhere for future reference when the same track is used.

On a side note, anyone experiencing regular crashes whenever the replay is playing? Unless I pause my replay after doing a stint on this track, or if I open to watch a full lap, it inevitably crashes, regardless of where the car is located during the lap. Never had this happen before.

It's just the penultimate corner really, in all the rest the line and grass coincide with one another, so it's always 2 wheels on the track. You'll see it's actually easier to take the penultimate corner that way and get a better entry for the last turn too. I tried both ways and the latter way felt more natural and easier in 2nd gear, otherwise I had to go down to 1st for a moment (or really low revs in 2nd).

I think an exception should be made for the area between the last 2 corners. It's even dangerous to try and slow down so much to stay within the lines when the runoff area is the same elevation and same surface (tarmac), same grip, like the actual track. It feels much more natural to use up the road there, just beyond the line. I think even in reality they used it in some years. Any thoughts?