I have been racing Brands Hatch this week (DR B). I could set a qualifying time of 1.31.320. I did drive a 1.31.32x three times so consistency was there. Had hoped for a 1.30.x so I would start from pole all the time. So it was a range of Q1 to Q4. My observations are:
Gr4 races are imho not the best experiences. Vastly prefere Gr3. The cars are that slow, that overtaking is near impossible if the car in front does not make mistakes. This leads imho to more dirty driving. I have been in a race starting at P2. I was faster than P1 but had no chance to pass, made a little mistake so P3 hanging behind me for some laps could slip past and then I was hanging behind P2 for the rest of the race. We three, imho clean drivers, have been within 2s all the race. Then there have been enough races, where I was shoved out of the way. That seems the way to overtake in Gr4. Sad. The P2 of the first race mentioned was on P2 behind me in another race and was shoved out of the way. He ended on last place with the race timer ticking down, guess he went for the pits and stayed there. I could secure the win from pole with a 14s lead driving about 1s faster per lap than P2 . My laptimes were 1.31.9x to 1.32.3x. Had another pole to P1 race with 14s lead. And then there were those Q2/3/4 races where I was shoved away, shoved away again, got in the middle of the pack ... resulting in around P10+. So the verdict is, with clean drivers around the speed for P1-3 was there, but with dirty drivers around the results were meh.
I am quiet new to Gran Tourismo. GT7 is my first GT and I am playing it for 1 year now with limited time availible (kids, house, other hobbies). I am now 110 races in and my observation is, that you have to commit a certain time to succeed in daily races. I had 3 evenings this week (seldom) and this made it possible to set a qualifying time I was pleased with. As seen in the race reports above, this seems crucial to have the time to set a proper qualifying time and thus keep away from the mid pack madness. So I decided to only race dailies, if I can commit at least two evenings in that week. Everything else seems suicide. Set my goal to reach DR A by the end of the year and I guess low DR A is where the journey will end with my availible time to race. Other till end of year goals are finishing the license tests, the track experiences and get .5s faster to secure gold in TTs with fewer effort and more consistently. Looking at the qualifying or time trial times others around here achieve, insane, brutal talent, never doable for me.
