AI back off and fall behind too quickly?

Hi, I’m looking for some help.
I think the title says it all; when an opponent is in front, they seem to battle well, but the moment I get ahead of them, it’s as though they just give up…
Is this a settings issue for me? Or is that just how it is.
Thank you for your time

 

Have you looked at your laptimes that it's not just that you are slower than your regular pace if you're battling and once you're through you just return to your faster pace than the AI has? Try if increasing the AI level a little bit and aggression to high makes a difference

 

That actually had never occurred to me haha. Sorry, I’m still pretty new to racing.
Thanks for the suggestion

 

What are your qualifying sessions like? Do you consistently qualify faster than your AI opponents, and if so, how much by?

When I was first learning I would generally have the AI easy enough that I could beat them fairly consistently if I didn't make too many bad mistakes (spins, crashes, etc) but mostly that was so I could progress through PC2's career mode and get to the cars I wanted.

These days I tend to aim to qualify in the Top 5 instead, it forces me to practice more and really learn the track (and develop racecraft) so that I can find those precious few extra tenths of seconds. You will spend a bit more time in traffic, and mistakes can be punishing and you'll have to fight your way back to the front. It's all good experience. I have consistently bad standing starts as I can't physically feel what the clutch and throttle are doing like IRL so that's something I need to work on - I usually lose a few positions at the start of the race because of it, so that's fun!