I rewatched the video, the lead fwd car is local and more experienced with the road but the awd camera car has some experience with the road as well.
Weight is negligible as the fwd had a passenger.
They have similar corner speeds. It seems the awd didn’t have an advantage that one would expect by being able to apply more power down mid-corner. I guess that maybe due to the limitations of a non performance awd system.
At some point in the uphill sections, the fwd starts to pull away in the straights and the rpms hang at 5k on the awd car. Not sure of awd system was overheating (no warning lights).
So not all driver skill, but the awd didn’t have an advantage that I was hoping for from a performance driving perspective.