Round 4, Time Slot 1
I'm grateful there's a rolling start this time around because playing the game of "will I make it alive out of T1?" was getting tiring in the last rounds. I felt I had good pace around here, and while I'm not the best at saving tires, I'm certainly better than most other people.
Qualifying was a disaster though. My first flying lap I went pretty slowly, and on my second flying lap I caught up to a slower person who was lagging everywhere, eventually appearing right in front of me in a braking zone which caused me to punt him, ruining my lap. So, I started 14th when I knew I could be a lot higher up.
Come race start a small gap opens up because I have to go around the final turn. I and the people ahead eventually catch up and we form a train from 10th-14th, and boy does it get messy. Everyone is fighting everyone, and I move up into 13th when someone messes up the Corkscrew. I almost make a double pass into T1/T2 on Lap 3, but get the bad line for T3 and end up getting double passed. I get pushed wide at the Corkscrew and lose another position, followed by another as my exit is compromised, putting me in 15th, but everyone up ahead is still fighting super hard- it almost ends up 4-wide into T5. The chaos continues until next lap, where someone runs wide and the battles become more individual as people begin pulling away. I gain P12 in T9 on Lap 7, and I make a rather strong move for P11 on Lap 8. I then gain P10 as someone ahead serves a penalty, and after some catching up and battling I get P9 coming out of the final corner on Lap 10. I do get punted into T1 as the person I passed goes too late on the brakes, and I take P8 coming into T1 of Lap 11, only to lose it almost immediately to a quick-moving person making their way up.
The rest of the race was pretty calm and I finish in P9 with 143 points. I knew I could do better, if only I qualified better and didn't waste so much time fighting the back of the pack. So, I went again. Little did I know about how the matchmaking was going to be though....
Round 4, Time lot 2
I guess most people bailed after the first race though because I find myself in a room with people around my DR and those who are 30,000 DR higher than me (Turismo-Lester was in my race again). The points for a victory went from 215 in the first slot to 265 in this slot. So, I was feeling nervous because I felt that I was going to end up getting a worse result.
This time I managed two qualifying laps in clean air, but I bottle my 2nd flying lap which would've been in the mid-1:37s. However, that ended up not mattering though, as 13th place was in the 1:37s, and everyone ahead was faster by a significant margin. So, I ended up qualifying 14th, again. The race was much calmer than last time, however, probably because of the differing paces of everyone.
The person starting behind me is quick, but I got a little reprieve when someone ahead messed up the Corkscrew and happened to rejoin just in front of them, which ended up bunching up the people behind me, giving me some breathing room to attack the person ahead. I was forcing them to be defensive, but I couldn't get a pass done. On lap 3, two people ahead of us wiped each other out, meaning I inherited 11th position. I kept following the person ahead, still unable to make a move, while the people behind kept fighting. However, on Lap 5, the faster people in the group broke out and began catching up. The first person gained almost a second on me in one lap, so I didn't bother defending because I knew I would lose time and wear my tires more than I needed to. The next lap the person who was originally behind me also broke out and was closing. They ended up passing me on Lap 9 with a dive down my inside, resulting in a small punt. I gain 11th back though when someone up ahead is moving slowly due to excessive tire wear.
I end up coming out of T6 poorly and go too deep into the Corkscrew defending, however, which spins me around and drops me to 16th. Luckily (for me), I gain back two spots when the people ahead wipe each other out in the final turn on Lap 10, and I get back up to 13th when the person ahead runs super wide into T1. I then gain back 12th position from the same person who was struggling with tire wear. However, I'm unable to catch 11th position, and I finish 12th for 142 points. I could've finished 11th for 153 points had I not defended so aggressively into the Corkscrew and overcooked it, but at least I only lost 1 point compared to the previous race. I'm really not liking this matchmaking, however, when not many people are playing, as it makes a victory nigh impossible and a decent result very hard to come by.
