Starting to get better results from qualifying now, its still a mess, but finding ways to take advantage and get clean runs in.
Easiest is when you know theres going to be rain coming, and either make sure you're out straight away and to hell with temps, just rush to the line. If you can see its just a passing shower, its often worth pitting in regardless of whether a timed lap has been completed.
If its dry, or the rain has trailed off, i find that around 5min in (3min left on my 8min session) theres a lull between cars pitting from their timed lap and those going out to start a new lap (in most cases, without the time left to start the lap!).
I also unknowingly brought in a mechanic a few races back who had a 2nd perk was to allow the driver access to a 6th engine mode that uses even more juice for better performance. I just tried it and took pole 1.5sec ahead of teammate who's in a better car and similar driving skill. They run out of fuel about 3/4 round their in-lap though
(edit - wouldnt enable that perk for the race though, but for quali why not)
Also took my first win, a 1-2 in fact. Wet Brazil track, iirc changeable conditions in qual and i managed to get my cars over the line early and got 1st & 4th on the grid. Race start i somehow managed to get my 4th guy into 2nd, and decided to try and do a Hamilton and back those mofo's up. Worked an absolute treat too. Main driver hammering her tyres and going safe on fuel, while the other guy was going as slow as i possibly could. What i didnt realise was i'd accidentally put on a new part i hadnt made reliable, a 45% brake, fortunately it was on the lead car and only a 6sec job so i got that out of the way in the first stop, and pretty much left them to it (i did screw up and pit them 2-laps before dry weather came in, which made things tighter than it should). The 2nd place guy, i just had to focus all my time on him, letting them bunch 3rd-8th up and if one got close along a straight and looked to be in a different racing line, have them go full-speed to prevent the pass. I actually lost 2nd for 3-4 laps but thanks to fuel saving (3+ laps excess iirc) i was able to keep chasing after them and take the place back before putting the brakes back on.
A bit lame in a way, but also quite challenging at the same time. What i noticed was that i felt more vulnerable in those few laps i was going 100% rather than those i was backing them up. They seem to get stuck there, just follow along and simply dont get momentum up to make a pass. The times i was vulnerable were when they'd slammed on the brakes and i'd pulled away enough for them to gather momentum and try something. So bunching them up was strategically the best thing i could do to simply keep them behind me.
