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We’ve had a weekend over our expectations here in Malaysia. Despite carrying 64kg of handicap weight, we managed to qualify and finish top-4. And with that result we’re back in the Championship lead by three points.

Temperatures were higher than yesterday and I drove the first stint on our qualifying tyres. The aim was to get the car into the refuelling window without loosing too much time so that Daisuke could take over on a harder compound.

Initially I managed to pick up a position and get into the top-3 but I soon had to let a quicker Honda through as I was pushing my tyres too hard keeping him behind. By lap 20 my rear tyres were completely finished but at that point we were already in the window and my teammate could take over. He took the car over the line in 4th place.

It was such a hard race having to be so careful with the tyres. In a way it’s what makes this Championship so exciting – I wish F1 tyres was as much on the limit as ours – it makes for entertaining races. Also, temperature and humidity played a big part with many drivers making unforced errors in the latter part due to heat exhaustion.

For us at Eneos Team Le Mans it was another perfect weekend. No errors, perfect judgement and timing and that is the main reason why we’ve been so strong this year. This was a team result and I’m very pleased for all of us to be rewarded with leading the Championship at the half way point. Great job guys!!

Now I’m off for a weeks holiday here with Ellen before returning back to Europe.

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We’ve been surprisingly quick here in Sepang today, ending the qualifying 4th overall. At one point it looked like we were going to challenge for Pole but in the end the gap was too big. With 64kg of penalty weight it’s a really strong performance, especially considering that amount of weight should cost us over a second per lap.
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Friday and first day at the track here in Sepang. Arrived on Wednesday and spent Thursday having a look around Kuala Lumpur. Then off to dinner with Daisuke, team manager Takuya and the Tom’s drivers.

This will be the first really warm race of the season with airtemp expected around 34 and humidity at 60. The coolsuits are ready and I’m now making sure I’m properly hydrated.

Plenty of Eneos guests here this weekend, we had over 400 items to sign on Friday afternoon.

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Latest highlights from Fuji Round 3.

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Our strong form continued at Fuji Round 3 with another podium for 3rd position despite carrying a 42kg weight handicap. For this weekend we were back to our regular qualifying format with the Superlap and we managed an excellent 3rd starting position for the race. I really thought that the extra weight would make it difficult for us to qualify inside the top-5, especially at a track like Fuji but our top-speed turned out to be one of the best all weekend.

Since this race was slightly longer (400km) than the normal distance we decided that Daisuke would drive a short first and third stint and I would do the longer middle stint. We dropped a position at the start but our pitstops were perfect and halfway through my stint I had managed to get the position back and was challenging the #1 Tom’s Lexus for second. At that point it was crucial for me to look after the tyres to try to stay out for as long as possible. The strategy worked out but the #1 car had a very strong final stint and it turned out that 3rd was the best we could manage.

This meant we lost the Championship lead but we’re only 2 points behind with five races to go. This year we have 9 races but only 8 of them count towards the Championship. With two podiums now in three races we’ve had a very strong start to the season putting us in a perfect position for the 2nd part.

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