QUAL: 1 min 20 sec 673 Qual standard menu Qual advanced menu

RACE: 1 min 22 sec 001 Race standard menu Race advanced menu

Note

If you have downloaded both setup for QUAL & RACE, you'll find a good difference in the setups, mainly anti-roll bar reduced and same for spring rate. Although i find the race setup has even more car balance,and the main reason for this big change, is to preserve tires easily up to 25 FUEL LAP (under 2.5 wear-out)

Introduction

This track has some challenges (mainly due to those numerous chicanes and corner 1 & 2. I had to admit that i had some hard time to get good lap times, mainly due to getting to know all the corner entry point correctly. Also i found new way of dealing with car setup, specially my new knowledge on ANTI-ROLL BAR and the interaction on spring rates. Also by adding PACKERS correctly, i could manage to lower car height and the benefits from this is higher cornering downforce, if you've not already seen my view on car setup please take a look.

I consistently ran in the mid 1 min 22 to low 1 min 23 range all the time, I even made a 1 min 22 sec 870 at the end of my practice (with worned tires). If your "gentle" enough on your tires and choose to go for 2 pitstop during a full race. Even a 3 pitstop is not bad if you can constantly run in the mid 1 min 22 range, At that pace you will outclass the field by 1.0 seconds a lap at ACE LEVEL. The track surface is not abrasive to some level, so the logical choice would be a 2 stop strategy.

Track Guide

Lets begin on how to go around the track as smooth & fast as possible. Passing starting line you'll reach around 300kph before entering corner #1 brake hard while downshifting to 3rd gear, try to be close to the apex then downshift to 2nd gear heading to corner #2 (Island hairpin). The apex of this corner comes soon, while in 1st gear the perfect line is hard to find, since this corner is opening all the time, if you accelerate too much, you might find yourself "backing-off a little bit on gas" and loose the momentum. Try to exit this hairpin with some extra room (I like this place to pass the competition), after car is stabilized accelerate hard leading to the first series of S bend (corner 3 &4). You'll reach 5th gear, flick back to 4th, the entry point is hard to master here when you got it right you'll upshift to 5th at the exit. At this point on corner 4 just accelerate and keep your car out of trouble by touching the cerbstone.This cerbstone and susbsequent one are good reference point to know the apex and you will be accelerating up to 6th gear. Before entering corner 6,Brake hard while still going on a straight line to prevent rear-end upset, and worse a spin-off in the gravel trap (I've seen good example of this in 90' during Qual).

I like to downshift later here to prevent the same (car upset), try to be as close as possible to the apex (2/3rd portion of the cerbstone) while in 2nd gear accelerate hard enough to gain momentum up to the 3rd gear. The exit is important at corner 7, you can accelerate steadily and barely lift the throttle then accelerate again to 6th gear leading to the 2nd Chicane (corner 8 & 9). Downshift to 3rd gear, if you enter correctly then again downshift to 2nd to negociate this chicane, make your turn soon to the left then accelerate hard (be carefull, this corner doesn't have any room for errors since there's no cerbstone on the exterior, if you hit the grass on 1-2 wheel lift the throttle and you'll save your car. If you got it right accelerate up to 6th gear going thru the slow hairpin (corner #10), here is a good place to pass a slower car. The entry point is important (don't overbrake,you'll send sand to the crowd), the best possible way is to negociate this slow hairpin is by letting your car "cruising" then hit the interior cerbstone, then accelerate gently until you're clear of the exterior of the corner then accelerate hard leading to a series of S bends(corner 11-12-13). This is the easiest part of the circuit, also you'll reach around 307-308 kph before entering again a chicane (corner 14 & 15), brake hard before "100M mark" downshift to 3rd gear, and if your entry point is correct you'll "snap" right to left to negociate this chicane, at the exit touch the cerbstone while upshifting to 4th, then accelerate to the start/finish line. VOILA!

A little note: I was prevelege to see Ayrton Senna at it's best in the Mclaren in 88' 89', and during raceday i was always sitting in the grandstand at the hairpin (corner 10), i can tell you, he had "that something special" to outbrake competition, and always accelerate harder than the rest of the field. IT WAS MAGIC!

Again the key point is being smooth,and the worst about this track is all those chicane to negociate. When negociating all those chicane, try to change direction smoothly to prevent car upset.