Cheers guys - Clive was closest to the mark on this one. I
have done a lot of practice here in the Gordini, although none of it was with this race in mind.
When the mod was released along with all the warnings about the shocking brakes, I decided that the best way to learn/prepare was to throw myself in at the deep end and beat Fangio's time in the Merc (On Monacane).
I managed to knock loads of time off the default setup, but as Monacane is so tight, I couldn't get close in the T16 - several of the 'bigger' cars got close enough to suggest they can beat it but only the Merc actually did.
When the Ranks went live and I discovered that they were using old Monaco I decided to have another shot at it in the Gordini as the ability to do the chicane flat amounts to a huge saving in brakes and therefore time - so I had a serious session one afternoon before giving up at about 1:41.7 (Whatever is shown in GPLRank at the moment - I haven't updated yet. Monacane was a 1:44.6 in contrast).
For last night I was tempted to punish myself in the Ferrari 625 as even after fitting the brake indicator mod I still didn't have a working light, I thought that maybe having to drive using the force would slow me enough to make it fairer. 10 minutes after making some minor tweeks to the Monacane setup and it's good for 3rd fastest on the rank tables and all I have to do to comfortably take the WR is put a clean lap in in so I pipped for the Gordini to keep the race 'fun'.
I was well chuffed with my qually time as it knocked 4 tenths off my previous PB, Fangio still has me by .2 though so as I still have room to improve that will be my next target for when I have some free time
Sorry to anyone caught up in Axel's flight of discovery - I put a message up in chat before the start of the race that the Gordini would be slow off the mark (you should all try it just to understand how rubbish it is at launching
) but I guess not everyone had chat turned on.
Much as was the case for Clive, it gave me a massive boost for the race though as I didn't have to worry about being over powered on the run to T1 where the Gordini struggles the most. Once up the hill my technique for Monaco starts to come into it's own as I appear to have the advantage on brakes and handling for all of the tight sections - several times I was worried I'd run into the back of Tris, his Lancia was so slow! (From watching the replay it had far too much understeer for Monaco).
I was quite looking forward to the battle that was sure to come as passing a much faster car would prove highly tricky here, sadly on lap 2 Tris's engine blew at the chicane and robbed us of that race
Well done to Clive on a solid 2nd, and as mentioned, to Fran on taking 3rd in this field.
Another mention should go to Bastian on his own fastest lap - if you take a look at it Vs myself, Tris and Clives own attempts you'll see you had most of the lap on the money
You just need to keep that consistent!
