You can't really simulate the knockout format, but you can do this (forgot who posted this advice):
Make quali 20 mins, and take the names of the 6 slowest drivers.
Then make quali 15 mins, and select to control you driver and the 6 who came last in the first session.
Take a note of the slowest 12 drivers, and then set the perf file so they are 500,600,700 etc. for quali perf.
Then run a 10 min session, and the drivers with modified perf should come 22-11 on the grid in the correct order
Only takes an hour, and it works quite well
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