John-Eric Saxen ended his unlucky streak with a very strong performance at the Nürburgring, finishing the German GP in 5th place after two races outside the points and four in a row compromised by different mishaps.
It also ended Faster Than Speed's curse in German soil, where the team hadn't scored any World Championship points since 2007.
In the World Championship, John-Eric Saxen drove a good Q1 lap which unfortunately, was not enough to allow him into the Q2 session by 2 tenths of a second. He qualified in 12th place, with his team-mate Giuseppe Marconi, who returned after the holidays, 17th on the grid.
After making a good start, John-Eric ended the first lap in 9th place. He soon started pressuring Aalberts, who ran wide, allowing John-Eric to move up to 8th. With a common 4-stop strategy, John-Eric drove a solid, intelligent race, showing good and consistent pace. He passed Tommy Nilsson in the second round of pitstops and moved up to 5th when Morand and Keithley had the accident which eliminated both from the race.
Towards the end and after saving brakes for several laps, John-Eric made a final push to catch the 3-stopping Patrick De Wit, who also had brake concerns. John-Eric got to the back of the Dutch driver during the final lap but, unfortunately, the checkered flag fell before he had the chance to try a move. John-Eric finished in 5th place, 0.6 seconds behind De Wit.
Giuseppe made a good start, overtaking both Francesconi and Kolarec in one move into Turn 6 on the opening lap. From there, Giuseppe drove a good race, taking part in several battles and surviving a colission with Filosa, who ran into Giuseppe after a small mistake. While unable to fight for points, Giuseppe finished the race in 13th.
John-Eric Saxen (5th): "Overall, this was a good race. In qualifying I did again not manage to get all sectors together, which meant ending outside the top 10 in 12th.
In the start, I was lucky as Parisis and Brljak made contact, which I just escaped. A couple of laps later Aalberts ran wide in front of me, again just barely avoided contact. I was then hoping to get past De Wit as soon as possible, as I quickly realised he was running a 3-stop strategy with more fuel, but overtaking on this track proved to be difficult.
After the half-point, I was aiming for a 6th or 7th place finish when suddenly Keithley and Morand had their moment. After the final stops. my gap to De Wit was 5 seconds with 10 laps left to go. I decided to play it safe and save brakes, but in the end, it turned out I was catching him quicker than expected, so I decided to go for a final push. This was not enough, so a fifth place result once again, which seems to be my lucky number this year.
Hopefully the season will continue in similar terms at Suzuka, a track I consider my personal favourite."
Giuseppe Marconi (13th): "Congratulations to John-Eric for another solid race and a good points finish for the team. About my race, not so much to say. A good start and in the first stint, I had the pace to stay with the other drivers in front and fight for my position. Sorry to Filosa because I lost the rear at the chicane exit and he ruined his race losing his front wing against me."
Faster Than Speed will now be heading to the twisty Suzuka, which hosts the Japanese GP. FTS has won at the figure-of-eight circuit in the 2008 WS Advanced race. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter (@FTS_Racing) and Google+ for the latest news and live coverage from Japan!
Faster Than Speed
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