Gentlefoot.com - Kyoto GP Long Track Guide

Before you start reading this guide it is very important that you are at least a little familiar with the car and track. If you haven’t done so already go and turn a few laps and ensure you can do at least three laps without any off track excursions. You will never improve your pace if you keep getting the tyres dirty or damaging the car.

KY3 is a super smooth circuit with only a few bumps in sector 3. It has several long acceleration zones and sector 2 is a series of fast bends that require high downforce. This is illustrated by the speed trace shown below.

When you turn in you are aiming to take as much of the kerb on the right apex as possible without running over the sleeping policeman, which will throw the car up in the air and end in disaster. Beware though, the kerb here is slippery and you may need to catch the back as you take it. If you make it through the first apex the hard part is over. Then it's simply a case of hitting the apex on the opposite side and powering out as shown in the clip.

As you approach T2 once you get to the 100m board you begin to see the green edging on the left. This is your cue to prepare your mind for braking. Stamp on the anchors just before you get to the red and white kerbing. Stay off it for this corner as it's very bumpy which is not good when you're still hard on the brakes.

Turn in as late as possible here as you need to give yourself an easy exit because there is a crest which makes the backend of the car step out on you.

The photo above shows a handy cone at the apex for you to aim at. It also shows the crest on the exit that you must be careful while negotiating.

Use as much of the kerb as possible at turn in for T3. It's nice and smooth and you don't need the brakes, just a lift will do. I missed the apex slightly on this lap. Stay off the slippery kerb at the apex.

As you fly under the bridge in top gear place one hand on your balls because this turn is flat out! No lift allowed here. It may take a few attempts before you get the timing of the turn in right. Miss your turn in point by a fraction of a second and you will understeer off at the exit.

Once you've done it a few times it seems easy. Just turn in aggressively and you'll be fine. As soon as you have made it through the apex start unwinding the lock to avoid shedding speed unnecessarily.

Confidence is everything here so be positive on the approach. Even if you do understeer off you may be able to escape damage free if you collect it back up quickly enough.

This is the only real left hander on the circuit and it goes on forever. There are a variety of lines you can take through it but the important thing is to maintain as much speed as possible. Turn in aggressively with your foot planted to the floor. There is a slight dip just before the mid point which brings on some understeer and that is the moment you lift momentarily and drop it into 5th. Then straight back in the power again and power out. Again I didn't quite take this tight enough in the example shown.

On the approach look for the start/finish line for the national circuit. You need to be turning in a couple of metres before you get to it. This corner is 5th gear and it's even possible in 6th. Much like the first apex of T1 you need to take as much kerb as possible without hitting the sleeping policeman. In fact you can get away with a slight touch here.

Look for your apex as early as possible. You know you'll be aiming for an apex that comes just after the concrete wall on the left ends. If you get the first apex right the car will just understeer to the 2nd apex on it's own

Another mistake from me through here cost me a half decent lap time. Brake between 50 and 60 metres out and be careful turning in. This corner is very bumpy over the 1st apex. I ran wide between the 1st and 2nd apexes and it's much quicker to just keep it neat and tidy here. Feather the throttle to maintain speed between apex 1 and 2 but be careful over the 2nd apex as this also is very bumpy.

Once you get to the 2nd apex, point the car straight at the kerbs on the right while again avoiding the sleeping policeman.and floor it. If you've got the attitude of the car right you can have very little steering lock on which will allow you to get back on the power as soon as you feel you've gone over all the bumps.

If you manage to emulate my lap and can do low 59s without any problem then there is plenty more time to make up. As I mentioned during the guide I made a number of errors in this lap and my PB is about half a second faster than this and the World record is another 3/4 of a second faster than that. Below is a comparison speed trace between my lap and AndyGer's 1:57.7.

You can clearly see from the trace that Andy was much quicker through pif-paf and the complex and I'm sure there are many of you out there that can go quicker than 1:59.

Good luck, I hope you find this track guide useful. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.