I was recently in an R2 hopper just to see what was up. And found 2 drivers that got extraordinary lap times 1:50, 1:51 on Nurburgring GP full, one of them was using a Furi not sure about the spelling. I can guarantee that some of you are going to use the “they are just that good” argument, but skill can only produce results to a point. I know there are people out there that can probably achieve such results with full damage.
I’m not going to change the way I play this game just so I can win more races. When I 'm finally sure of my skills using manual and not damaging the car.
Those are extraordinary laps in R3, not R2… But to answer your question… Yes, people can do that with damage on. In fact, the tire wear can help the car settle into the track better for a while. If you look at R2 Infineon NASCAR, V12 Nikrox is still around top 25 in an 874 PI Lexus SC430 GT500 car. That time was done in a racing series in December 2011 with absolutely no assists allowed and damage on.