Hey guys, 1st post here, be gentle
. Been reading through this thread over the last couple of weeks but thought I'd dive in. Only actually been indulging in Sport Mode for a few weeks as I only casually play for a bit of escapism every now and again. Been playing through 'campaign mode', if you like, for a while but thought I'd see how badly I compare online! Wow, that's a reality check!
But you know, I'm just playing for fun and getting enjoyment out of it and really appreciating some of your liveries - as a creative, this is what I spend most game time doing... I'm D rated, and considering how mixed up everything tends to get I don't suppose I'll get too far up anywhere soon. Seems like everytime I have a 'good' race and pick up some points, I then end up having a 'terrible' race and losing them all again. Hey ho. But I always try to play fair, get out of the way and avoid contact. I'd rather lose a load of positions because people are better than me or I make a mistake than gain some positions by ramming half the field of the road. And any negative SR I pick up is generally from a mistake, because I'm not particularly brilliant. But hopefully that's appreciated by you guys, in general, let alone if we ever end up in race together.
I'm a controller player, I don't play seriously enough to warrant a wheel. But I reckon I'd be a bit quicker with one. I struggle with the small alterations controller wise, not enough fine motor control - It's full lock or no lock and full throttle or lift and coast! Having said that, if I can set a qualy time less than +10secs vs top 10 then I'm generally happy, considering I don't get to play very often.
But I've really enjoyed some solid progress at Suzuka this week. I normally dread it tbh. Too much gravel. But I've had some fun races around it and I've managed on the whole to find a decent level of consistency (yes, I know it's only 4 laps!) and I'm a bit disappointed I haven't been able to spend more time with it. I've been competeing in the 4C and I was quite content with my 2.16.3 qualy time. This afternoon I finally got a race in with an all D rated lobby - rather than watchiing everyone drive off into the sunset whilst I languish at the back with Sir Ramalot and co - And it was flipping good fun. I started in 8th which meant I didn't have to mess around with auto drive launching me half way through the chicane and had a good race and a good battle with people. Found myself up to 4th at one point after everyone in front of me messed up a couple at a time between the esses and spoon and had good enough pace to keep them behind. I just got a bit excited through the esses myself on lap 2 and low and behold ran out of tarmac on the outside. But I finished 6th which is actually my best result (other than a start from 2nd and finish in 2nd in a fiat 500 fiasco non-event from last week).
Hopefully I'll get to share with guys over the next couple of weeks, what life looks like at the bottom of the ladder! If you'll have me! There's a few of us good guys down here, just trying to have fun and stay out of your way!
Oh, and by the way of an aside, that 2.16.3 was the best qualy time I could muster, after quite a few attempts. But then I smashed a 2.15 final lap in clean air with no slip stream. Not quick by a lot of your standards I know, but I think it shows that if you're in the zone, whatever level, your just in the zone. Get it right in the right circumstances and there's no reason why you can't run qualy times (or quicker with slip stream) in the race.
Looking forward to Interlagos and some inevitable blue flags in Tokyo.
Peace.
! So.. I put in a few laps with the M3 and set a pretty ordinary time (@Cap'n Jack had better than 3s up on me). On an all DR/D grid, that put me on P5/14 
. That will change tomorrow.. people will be faster.
. When autodrive let loose it was pandemonium! T1 was a crash fest 5 deep, so I'm not quite sure how I managed to get through with out any penalty or seeing an orange SR 
.
. I came out of T1 in P4 but was later passed after having to take evasive action at Descida do Lago. I got my head down and tried first to keep on track, then focused on pursuit of P4. I was steadily catching him, and pulling away from P6. I managed to collect a penalty by taking about 1/4 of a tyre width too much out of Senna. On the final lap I had closed the gap and had the speed to pass P4 on the section from Juncao to Arquibancadas. I don't think he was actively blocking me, I just couldn't find a space. Wouldn't have mattered, with that penalty he would have finished P4 anyway 
. I crossed P5 with my front bumper mm away from his rear.
