The lap
Lime Rock Park · Grand Prix
7 corners, 4 of which decide the lap. What each one asks of the car, and what you do about it.
Main straight
Big Bend
Left-Hander
No Name Straight
Chicane
Esses
Uphill
West Bend
Diving Turn
StraightFast cornerMedium cornerSlow corner
The lapThe Full Course with the chicane in, partway down No Name Straight. One slow corner changes the whole character: the lap stops being pure momentum and starts asking for braking stability and kerb compliance that the Full Course never needs.
Set up forKerb compliance through the chicane first — it is the only thing here the Full Course does not also ask for — then the same settled rear over the Uphill and down through Diving Turn.
Classic mistakeTreating it as the Full Course with an inconvenience in the middle. The chicane is the one place a car can be genuinely bad here, and it is worth giving up a little elsewhere to be good in it.
Works hardestKerbs and brakes at the chicane, fronts through Big Bend
Length2.61 km · road course · US
Corner by corner
Every corner on this layout
A • marks the corners that decide the lap.
T1 Big Bend •
Fast right · long
A long, fast right taken almost flat, and the front tyre is loaded for far longer than it feels.
- Technique
- One steering input and hold it. Correcting mid-corner scrubs the front and you pay for it all the way down No Name.
- Demands
- High speed — aero is live · Sustained mid-corner load · Front grip limited · Wants a settled rear
T2 The Left-Hander
Medium left · off-camber
The only left on the lap, and it falls away from you on exit.
- Technique
- Get the car rotated early. Running wide here puts two wheels on the grass with no room to recover.
- Demands
- Wants yaw on entry · Low speed — aero does little · Exit-phase limited
T5a–5b The Chicane •
Slow · chicane · kerbs
Sits partway down No Name Straight, and it is the only real braking zone on the circuit — the corner that stops the lap being one continuous arc.
- Technique
- Take the kerb square and get the car straight early. Everything either side of it is about momentum, so the cost of a bad chicane is paid twice: once here, and again all the way to West Bend.
- Demands
- Braking-limited · Kerbs are part of the line · Wants yaw on entry · Low speed — aero does little · Traction-limited
T6 The Esses
Quick left-right · uphill
A short uphill flick that sets up the whole back half of the circuit.
- Technique
- Straighten it out and use the kerb. Fighting the direction change costs more than the kerb does.
- Demands
- Transient, not steady-state · Kerbs are part of the line · Turn-in transient
T7 The Uphill •
Medium right · blind crest
Blind and rising, with the car light over the crest just as you want to commit.
- Technique
- Take it on faith and a reference on the horizon. Lifting at the crest unsettles the rear exactly when you cannot afford it.
- Demands
- Compression or crest loading · High speed — aero is live · Wants a settled rear · Aero platform sensitive
T8 West Bend
Fast right
Quick and committed at the top of the circuit, leading to the drop back down.
- Technique
- Carry the speed. The lap time here is decided by how early you can be back to throttle.
- Demands
- High speed — aero is live · Sustained mid-corner load · Wants a settled rear
T9 Diving Turn •
Fast right · downhill
Downhill and onto the main straight, so every mistake is multiplied by the length of the straight that follows.
- Technique
- The rear goes light as the road drops. Be committed but be smooth — this is the corner that decides the lap.
- Demands
- High speed — aero is live · Rear grip limited · Wants a settled rear · Exit-phase limited
Corner names and numbering follow common usage; some circuits number differently between layouts.
Sideways
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