Top Gear’s Top 9: British corner exits

You turn in unsighted, barrel down the hill and have to manage about thirty-seven different G-forces as you charge down, avoiding the hungry gravel trap on the left-hand side. There’s a special place in motorsport hell reserved for folks who get this gnarly corner exit wrong.

The rapid direction change bookended by barriers makes the narrow Goodwood Chicane a tricky little sequence on bends, but critical for carrying plenty of speed onto the pit straight. Here’s a Top Gear top tip: spectate here at the Revival to see plenty of old-school classic cars going very sideways as they exit this corner. Some things were just better in the olden days, right?

The most infamous corner on the 1.1-mile Goodwood Hillclimb, Molecomb has claimed plenty of embarrassed celebrity drivers’ egos and priceless exotics’ carbon fibre over the years. The trick is to brake well before you actually see the entrance, then be very patient getting on the power until you see a clean line up the hill. Best take it slow first time, in something strong and stable.

Here’s TG’s Chris Harris using a Ford GT to demonstrate the ideal way out of Knockhill’s final turn. A steep uphill right-hander with plenty of banking to lean against, you can exit this hairpin with the throttle flattened earlier than you think, using the width of the circuit to give the tail room to dance. Don’t let the, um, back stop sliding.

North Wales' very own little project of cornering fear is a right hander you turn into going uphill, crest as you apex, then exit on the downhill heading for the tricky Corkscrew chicane at the end of the lap. Chiefly, the biggest problem at Peel is to avoid being distracted by spectacular views of the Irish Sea as you top the gradient. Scary stuff.

One of the fastest series of corners in Formula One, the Maggotts/Beckets complex subjects drivers to forces in excess of 2G as they flick the car left and right, praying that the aerodynamicists have got their sums right. In its own way, it’s just as spectacular as Eau Rouge – and takes just as much bravery to carry speed through.

Turn three at Oulton Park is a 90-degree left-hander that spits cars out onto one of the fastest sections of the circuit. Getting a clean exit is critical, but the difficult downhill braking zone and slight climb on the exit make judging a braking point an expert task.

The downhill series of bends that links up to create Craner Curves demands the driver – or rider, more likely, as Donington is synonymous with superbikes – looks ahead to prepare. It’s all about maintaining a flow that doesn’t upset the balance of the vehicle, whether it’s on two wheels or four.

Immediately following a 90-degree chicane, Cadwell Park fires you uphill into a jump affectionately known as The Mountain. If you’ve not sorted out your exit from the chicane before you go airborne, negotiating a neat landing for the technical complex of corners that follow isn’t easy...