Pretty positive and enjoyable race for me. I had time to practice on Wednesday and knew Suzuka relatively well so I hadn't to learn the track.
Thanks to Joseph
@Captain Condescending for the setup, during my practice I had a potential 1.48.0 but stopped at 1.48.4, I was then able to shave another couple of tenths using it. Of course it's hard to stay away from vices so I made another couple of modifications between the quali and the race and I partially screwed my performance (gave one click less on the 6th gear and that was too short for the final straight).
All in all midfield quali isn't common for me so I was happy with it anyways.
The race start had been very good but before T1 I was already out as
@H_Belane drifted a bit too much towards the left and I had to put a couple of wheels on the grass. Dead last but this has been the peak of my misfortune, yet a good thing because it allowed me to avoid all the following incidents and capitalize on other drivers' errors. I just focused on being consistent and I have been lucky enough not to remain stuck in the gravel in the few off track tours during the race.
I was able to race the first part without errors and gained up to tenth place, then I found myself even up to sixth after some pitstops.
Second part of the event has been a struggle to keep Andre
@a_murel distant enough , not making errors and trying to catch Thomas
@thom462 . With both of them there were overtakes due to each one own errors, and in the end the positions remained the same.
Intense race nonetheless, but I was finally able to have a race without any hiccup, though the mistery about their origin remains: I disabled a couple of options during the practice, and got rid of the FPS cap and V-sync. My FPS indicator stayed over 220 while practicing online mid week, with post processing and all the rest. Once I joined the race during practice the usual bad stuttering appeared. Nothing else had changed from the practice I made online half week, and the FPS meter was still above 220, but dropped sometimes to below 140 and the image froze for a few tenths of a second. I decided to give up post processing for quali and see the result, and yeah! No hiccups anymore.
Very difficult to understand the reason (post processing has many settings) and to troubleshoot as it just happens online and during the race evening while not when online during the week.
However, having a buttery smooth frame rate was a game changer in terms of being able to focus and not doing errors.
Cheers to the podium finishers, and thanks Paul for organising as usual. See you in two weeks!