Catalunya

This is the first round of a 9-round championship on Gran Turismo Sport. We will be driving Group 3 cars and the grid contains only of Dutch drivers. Every race is an hour long and we are free to use whichever tire we want. I will be driving my favourite car in-game the Toyota FT-1 (I still think Toyota dropped the ball on the new Supra but that’s another story entirely)

First, I would like to give some information about why I started writing in what I would like to call a diary. It’s definitely not a race report because I will be writing down my own experiences and feelings of every round. I started this diary because I’m also competing in Tim Fullbrook’s TRB-GT championship, a championship I very much enjoy. My first intention of writing this is so I could update my fellow competitors in that league about my results in the Dutch E-League. So here I am writing my first story in this hopefully 9-part diary.

Qualifying

In qualifying we were allowed to use any tire we wanted. And we also didn’t need to start the race on the tires we have qualified on. So, my strategy was to start qualifying on mediums and go straight for the super softs, set my time on the super softs and start my race on mediums. But while we were waiting for qualifying to start, I was practicing laps on my super softs and suddenly qualification started. This meant I didn’t have time to change to mediums and I had to start qualification and the race on super softs. At this point I didn’t know the overall pace of the others, so I was a bit nervous. As I always do in qualification, I was waiting for the entire field to leave the pits. Times were set by the others and I could see that the times were nowhere near the guys of the TRB-GT championship, so I had a good feeling about my own lap because I didn’t make any mistakes. My feelings were correct because after finishing the finish line I was 8 tenths up of the second-place guy. I backed off because I didn’t feel the need to push for another lap as I had to race for another whole hour. While I was waiting the second-place driver Dummysimba closed the gap to 7 tenths.

This meant I start on pole position on a 10-car grid. I felt good but also a bit disappointed because I love a challenge, and this seemed like a walk in the park. But I was wrong...

The Race

The start of the race!

I assumed we would be having a rolling start but when the race commenced, I saw all the cars lining up for a standing start position. This gave me sudden anxiety’s because I never practice standing starts, and the odd occasion when I have so start like that, I drop places like Ferrari drops championship points.

The lights went out and immediately I dropped 4 places making me go into turn 1 in fifth place. Luckily, I was able to gain 1 place coming out of the second corner putting me in fourth. From then on, I knew I had a challenge on my hand so I wasn’t all to fed up about this. At this point I was following a Merc in thrid place and an Alfa in second and another Merc in first. At this point I knew I was faster than all three of them, but I had to be patient and wait for a good opportunity to overtake.

Coming back on the main straight I had a far better exit than Semvansoest the third place AMG driver. I lined up behind him for the slipstream and when I got close enough, I pulled alongside. At that point I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy overtake because the AMG’s straight-line speed is immense compared to mine. As we both went into turn one side by side, I kept my car on the inside, Semvansoest got real close and right at the apex we had small contact. But luckily, we both stayed on track and I got to third place coming out of the second corner.

Overtake on Semvansoest Overtake on Semvansoest

Time to hunt down second place!

Second place driver Legyandi was a couple of seconds ahead at this point so I put my foot down and got into my inner Lewis Hamilton. It was HAMMERTIME. After 1 lap I got close to Legyandi and it was time to make this overtake much easier than the one before. I didn’t want to lose any time on first place driver Dummysimba. Luckily for me Legyandi and Dummysimba were battling for first place after Dummysimba made a mistake, so they were losing a lot of time while I was catching up and hunting them both down. Heading into turn number 4 I placed my car on the inside of Legyandi’s Alfa and went for a simple overtake.

O​vertake on Legyandi O​vertake on Legyandi

Let’s get first place back!

First place Dummysimba had decent pace but he made small mistakes in each corner giving me the time to get really close and plan my next overtake. My plan at that point was getting a better exit out of the final corner and overtake him on the inside heading into turn 1. I knew it all depended on my exit because the AMG’s straight-line speed is so much better. Coming into the chicane he went wide and I could’ve put my car next to him, but I backed out. I knew he was trying to get back on track as quickly as possible not even noticing I was coming alongside. I’m glad I backed out because he was cutting across the track like a madman and he would’ve definitely side swiped me if I didn’t back off. But because of his mistakes I’ve placed my car alongside him in the final corner and regained my first-place position.

This all happened in a time span of 5 laps...

R​egaining the lead of the race R​egaining the lead of the race

A long-time of driving and nothing happening.

So now I’m in first place, I extended my lead until the first pit stops came around. I had such a significant lead by the time I went to the pits, when I exited the pits on super softs, I was still in first place. Moments like these are very rare to me where I drive comfortably in the lead without any threat of someone overtaking me. So to keep myself focused I was looking at the time difference between me and second place and tried to extend it as much as I could without doing any silly stuff. I was driving comfortably and setting a new fastest lap time.

Coming into lap 14 (about 30 min into the race) I went for my second stop. This time changing to regular softs because I wanted to go long and maybe go to the finish on these tyres. When leaving the pits I lost 2 places putting me in 3rd position. Legyandi stopped for his pit a lap after so I gained a place without having to overtake someone. Time to hunt down Dummysimba. Again.

Big mistake.

Coming out the pits I had free air and a couple of backmarkers so there was nothing to slow me down as I was hunting down Dummysimba. At this point I was fuel saving because I wanted to go till the end on this stint. Even though I was fuel saving I gained time on Dummysimba because he was driving around on old tires. So finally, in lap 19 I was within half a second of Dummysimba and it was time to go for another overtake for the lead. But heading into turn 7/8 I went completely sideways because I made a rookie mistake. I went with 2 wheels on the grass while braking and the car just snapped around me. Luckily, I was driving a Japanese car so there’s always some drifting capabilities built into it. I lost about 10 seconds on Dummysimba and I had to gain all that time back. But Dummysimba went into the pits and I got my lead back.

I was not making it till the end on softs.

Lap 26, 45 minutes into the race I couldn’t stay out because my tyres were gone, and my fuel was low. I looked at the time difference between me and second place driver Dummysimba. It was around 12 seconds. I took the gamble and went into the pits. I changed to supersofts and filled up my car so I could make it to the end without fuel saving. Right before I left the pits Dummysimba come across. He just overtook me, and he was about a second ahead. At that point I could’ve done 2 things. Hunt him down and try to overtake him. Again. Or drive close to him and finish second place, but because he had a 4 second time penalty, I would’ve taken the win anyway. Of course, I went for the first option because driving behind someone is really boring and I tend to make mistakes that way.

Negotiating back markers while fighting for the lead Negotiating back markers while fighting for the lead

Aggressive defending inspired by our number 1 Dutch driver Max Verstappen.

After negotiating some back markers, I got really close to Dummysimba. He knew I had fresh tires coming straight out of the pits so I expected he wouldn’t fight me as much as he did.

Lap 27 going into the main straight Dummysimba was waving to break the slipstream. I knew I was quicker in corners, so it didn’t bother me as much as I gained a lot of time in turn 3 and 4. I stayed close behind him while I was waiting for him to make a mistake.

I tried my first move heading into turn 3 going around the outside. But he forced me out wide and I had to back out. I stayed on the outside into turn 4 because he defended the inside. I cut across and faked going around the outside and cut across on the inside into turn 5. He closed the door at the last second, so I had to stamp on the brakes to avoid any contact. At this point I was flashing in frustration. He had an awful exit out of 5 so I had my nose right into his rear.

Going into turn 10 Dummysimba defended the inside so I placed my car on the outside right next to him. I was completely alongside when he pushed me off the track making me go wide. No hard feelings I thought but I’m going to be aggressive as well from now on.

Coming out of turn 3 Dummysimba swerved to the right to defend turn 4 because I was taking the inside line. I went for the outside again braking very late making us go side by side into turn 4. At this point Dummysimba got himself a 7 second penalty because he moved very late into the braking zone touching me. I kept my car beside him going into turn 5 and pushed him a bit wide. We both made the corner and that was the end of a long aggressive battle.

F​orced out wide F​orced out wide

Cruising the car home.

We only had about 8 minutes on the clock, so I drove the car easily to the finish flag securing my first win in the Dutch E-League.

T​aking the W T​aking the W

Next round will be at the Red Bull Ring in Austria!

Thanks for reading my first ever post on Drivetribe and I’m open for tips and suggestions for my next post! So, if you have them, please comment and let me know.