In race one there was a big crash at Degner on the first lap, I was running fourth or so and found myself committing to the second part of the corner with a huge wreck in front of me, any attempt to thread through the mess was impossible and I hit someone, no idea who. I will check in the replay.
Half the field were then coming out of the pits and we all got going again, I then had an incident with Daniel a few laps later at 130R that I think was something of a misunderstanding but mainly my fault for being too hesitant. Daniel (Ouff, this is) had a poor run through spoon and I had a huge run on him on the back straight, I pulled out to pass as we approached the top of the hill but hit a wall of air. I could not match Daniel's top end speed and when I realised that I was not going to get more then my front wheels in line with his rears I decided to pull out of the move. At this point we were tramping up to 130R at around 280kmh, and I doubt Daniel could see where I was in his mirrors. I ducked back to slot in behind Daniel and then run through 130R and try a pass on a brakes for the chicane. Sadly, as I chopped back in behind, Daniel lifted. I presume Daniel, that you normally ran 130R flat, and so you were probably lifting to concede the corner to me. At those speeds there is no room to move, and the lift, when I was right on it, caused me to hit from behind and we both had a massive accident in 130R. Apologies to Daniel, I should have backed out of the move earlier, or stuck with the inside line. After this I restarted again and ran a lonely race to 7th.
Race two was much more fun. I started further back in sixth, but with Sergio I got a great start, we both piled through the pack and I was second to the Marlboro liveried machine coming out of the first turn. This surprised me marginally as I braked way too early for it, being cautious on cold tyres.
Coming up to the end of the first lap Mattia had a run on me coming out of 130R and I knew he was quicker than me on the whole, so when I saw him making a move I gave him room. It was better to let him go on ahead and try to agitate Sergio, this allowed me to run my own race and not have Mattia chomping at my gearbox all race long. Sometimes there is no point in blocking, and as is often the case in real racing, one can learn alot more from following a faster driver than they ever can from vociferously defending a position. It was a good move by Mattia, we both gave eachother room and cleanly got through the chicane.
Over the next few laps, to my surprise, I kept Sergio and Mattia in sight. As everyone's tyres bedded in after a couple of laps things evened out, and my strategy started to come into play.
After the incidents in the first race I decided to throw a curveball into my plans for race two, and run with a pit stop. Starting sixth I figured that if qualifying pace was anything to go by then I was in a battle with Laurent and Cedric for fourth or fifth place. As such, I had nothing to lose by trying something new. I started the race with 32 litres of fuel on board with fresh tyres, with a plan to pit on lap seven and run to the flag. This enabled me to have a lower fuel load than everyone and fresher tyres, for most of the race, with the small problem that I would lose around 20 seconds with a pit stop.
On lap four I was catching Mattia and Sergio a little, as my tyres held up better on the lighter fuel load. Into Degner Sergio spun, Mattia hit him and I avoided both and took the lead. At this point it was time to push, I had Laurent three seconds back and I needed to make that gap as big as possible. Laurent, as he mentioned, was being Prost and looking after his tyres, he was looking like a winner, but i had to push. On lap six, after extending a gap of 6.5 seconds or so to Laurent, I got on the throttle a little too early in Dunlop corner. As I am sure you all found at some point in your lapping of Suzuka, the camber of Dunlop makes it very challenging, and if the car oversteers in the early part of the corner it is very difficult to get back. I got it back, but only after losing a huge amount of speed. Now, with Laurent large in my mirrors I had two laps to make a gap before my stop. At the end of lap seven I then got sideways on the brakes into the chicane just before pitting, Laurent inherited the lead and I came out of the pits in fourth, behind Daniel (2nd) and Cedric (3rd).
On fresh tyres I began to hunt down Cedric very quickly, his tyres were gone by this stage and I was taking up to 2.5 seconds per lap off him. When I arrived behind him I was caught out, Cedric got very sideways through Degner and i was fully committed to the corner I had nowhere to go. Degner is not a corner you can play with, and when you throw the car in you cannot adjust it. I hit the brakes to avoid Cedric, the car skipped sideways and I went into the gravel. Luckily not in a big way and I did not lose too much speed as I rejoined the track. At the end of the lap Cedric went off at the chicane and I was able to take third place. I then made inroads into Daniel's second place, starting around 11 seconds back from him I pushed and pushed, hoping that he might make a mistake. By the chequered flag I was one second behind him, Daniel kept it clean and made no real mistakes on very worn tyres and earned a great second place.
It was a great attacking race for me, very different to Laurent's calmer choice. Had it been more of a normal race i think my third place would have been fifth or sixth, but it went differently. Laurent was too far to catch with a pit stop, though I do wonder if my strategy would have worked better for a driver better than me. Moving up from sixth to third in a race on such a challenging track and demanding car was satisfying for me. Congratulations to Laurent and thanks everyone for some great racing.
Jon.
