Time Trial Challenge Results: F1 2010

Following the Singapore Grand Prix, we ran a Time Trial of the circuit on F1 2010. When I made the original post, I had a time of about 1:45. I managed to get this down to roughly 1:42 and was quite pleased with myself, until I saw the results slowly trickle in. Some of the times were unbelievable! Here are the top 3 and what they’ve won:

• 1^st Place – 1.38.429 – Manorhowze – £5 Amazon gift voucher and 100 TSA Pts
• 2^nd Place – 1.38.430 – cam the man – 75 TSA Pts
• 3^rd Place – 1.38.465 – JamboGT – 50 TSA Pts

All 3 times were brilliant, but there was just one thousandth of a second between cam the man and Manorhowze! Seeing as those all times were so good, I asked them if they wouldn’t mind sharing their secrets and giving some tips to those of us who didn’t do as well. They all responded, so here are snippets of what they said:

JamboGT:

“For my lap I used both ABS and medium traction control, however my biggest tip personally is to learn to race without these. This teaches you to brake and accelerate when the car is straight, so no grip is wasted with the car turning and basically will help you to drive faster. After getting competent with this set-up I then turned on TC and ABS for the time trial and was able to easily take 2 to 3 seconds off my time while still using the same driving style.

Secondly, get a ghost off the leaderboards. I went for a ghost that was a second or so faster than what I thought I would be capable of until I was racing against one of the very top guys. My final tip may not be an affordable one, but if you can afford to get a wheel, get it. You can be so much smoother and progressive with both the throttle and the steering, and it is great fun too!”

Cam The Man:

“The key to me getting a fast lap was trying to master corners 3, 5 & 13, as they made the biggest difference to the lap times. I found that if I braked slightly earlier than normal but slow down less, I could get the power down early, before the apex, which makes a big difference to your speed down the straights. Oh, and don’t take too much kerb, apart from the chicanes, as I spent many a lap spinning after riding them too much.

My set-up was mainly the 2nd from right in ‘quick setup’ with the gears changed to suit the track and a bit extra camber to null the kerbs at the chicanes.”

Manorhowze:

“The assists I used were ABS, Corners only racing line, full traction control and auto gearbox. You can’t (well I can’t) go as fast with traction control off as you are constantly doing donuts. I would use Manual in almost any other racing game but it’s too hectic in this game for me so I stick to auto.

I went through a few different setups but the one I used for my fastest time was a Dry setup with maximum aero and the toe turned right up. I had the engine set to ‘Fast’ and front wing set for more downforce. I chose the Red Bull for the Time Trial purely as that was the fastest car round the real Singapore track (although not the winning car, but that’s a different story).

I found using a friends ghost (or someone off the global leaderboard) helps to get you up to speed with a track and then take a few laps just to find out where you can take liberties with the braking, and more importantly, where you can’t. Once I knew where I could push it, and where I couldn’t, I preferred racing my own ghost and trying to brake a little bit later than the ghost to see if it would still make it round the corner. Oh and as a rule stay off the kerbs With the exception of turns 1 and 10 (although they are both still risky).

There is a lot of time to be made from banzai-ing (Is that even a word?!) a couple of corners, notably Turn 10 (Singapore sling), the first corner and the final corner. If you get it just right you can gain a lot just in those 3 corners. The hardest part of all is resisting the urge to tear your DS3 into pieces, collecting them up and burning them as a sacrifice to the devil when you ruin a good lap. I must have attempted several hundred laps but only ever completed about 10 of them as I would always end up cutting a corner, spinning or hitting a wall so just restart and try again at that point.”

So those are the winner’s tips, I hope you all enjoyed the Time Trial, and have had a look at the TSA F1 2010 Championship, I’m sure that it will be great fun! If F1 isn’t your cup of tea, then check out the Community and Competitions links in the left hand menu for other TSA events that are going on. Thanks to all of you that entered, and once again congratulations to the winners!

This post was written by gazzagb.