No need for bowing here, Jack! We're just a bunch of people who can drive relatively fast on a PC game. Never the less, I guess it does take some talent and a fair bit of knowledge of how to drive a car and get the most out of it, and how to set a car up to get the most out of it.
For me, I'm usually quicker in my first 30minutes than I am after I learn the combo and get into a groove, because sometimes you pick up bad habits. In your first few laps, you're just guestimating where to brake and you do it mostly naturally, and off reflexes, rather than antisipating what you're going to do next.
As far as experience goes for me, I think it's best to antisipate what the car will do, and correct it before it actually happens.. but sometimes that's not the best option because not always does the car do that. On LFS you don't have a great feeling for what the car is doing, so you have to judge by tyre sqeal, corner speed and I guess for me some force feedback helps too.
Anyway, it's all about driving the car to its limit, and not going over it, because that costs you time. You just gotta push it really hard into corners, and then see how fast you can take them, whilst still getting a good exit. I often try to go too fast into corners to find the limit. You'll know once you've hit it.