Autódromo José Carlos Pace

Week 7 Interlagos

Saturday: My first qualifying for Fittipaldi Automotive. What a car I got! I was flying through qualifying, but I could not string together a single perfect lap. Finaly on my second to last attempt I got a deacent lap together. I felt I should have gone a couple of tenths faster, but it was close to good enough I guess. My final lap started out very good but I had a couple of misshaps later on witch messed it up. I was sitting in my car in the pits waiting for others to finish.. I was still on P1, but would it be enough? The tennsion was so intense! When the last real competitor crossed the finish line we could finaly breath! WE DID IT!!! Pole possition at Interlagos!!!! Just wow...

Three races ago we started P3, that was just amazing! Last race we started P2, that was just surreal! Now I'm sitting here.. On pole possition! Clear track ahead, wow what a feeling! The lights went red.. Everyone revs up.

GREEN! I get off with a deacent start and I am going first in to the corner.

Going into T2, Jack Hinchman got up on my left side, but I managed to get better traction out of the corner than him and I flew away!

Behind us there was a massive wreck going into the esses, something I didnt even notice in the heat of battle.

From now on it was basicly just pure sailing for me.

I was running away, almost a second per lap.

What do I say? It was pretty un eventfull here at the front. But what a great feeling it was!

By lap 15 or so I started laping people, this went very smoothly, thanks to some great cooperative drivers!

By lap 25 I was now 10 seconds infront of Hinchman.

With a second lead per lap I decided to take it easy as I was reving the engine very hard on the straights. I went about 1.5 seconds slower than my race pace. There was no point in pushing. And I cruised over the start finish line to take my first ever victory in a Formula One car!

It fellt so good to get my first win in my first race for the Fittipaldi Automotive! I cant thank them enough for giving me this opportunity! I would also love to thank John G. Hill for beliving in me and helping me!

And last but not least I want to thank my girlfriend Line who let's me do this and still wants to stick with me even with my racing madness desease, and also for beliving I could get a victory!

Thank you all! What a day it has been...

Promotion!

Yesterday I got a phonecall from Dr Harvey Postlethwaite. As soon as I understood who he was I got realy realy excited! He wanted me to come out to Interlagos and do a test drive for Fittipaldi Automotive.

I arived at Interlagos the next day. I was so excited! After all these years of hard work, finaly I'm test driving a real F1 car! One of the first people I met when I arived at the track was Adrian Newey, the team's new designer. A realy great guy with an amazing work ethic. But now it was time to get some testing done. It did'nt take to long for me to get comfortable in my new office.

After a laps I came back in the pits with a huge smile on my face. What a car! The cornering speeds you can do are just amazing! Then after some tweaks on the car I was back out there again.

I wished it would never stop! This was just amazing. And I managed to put up some pretty good times as well. My best was a 1:27,490 with race fuel.

I came back in to the pits. I had my first real test run in an F1 car. What a rush!
And they wanted me to drive in their third car for the race on sunday! This is a superb opportunity.
So now I'm just looking forward to sunday. See you there!!

Montreal

Week 6 Montreal

So! Finaly we are in Canada, this is a race I have realy been looking forward to. And this track did not dissapoint! What a fantastic circuit to drive a car like this on! I love the feeling when you find traction out of the more slipery corners. Amazing fun!

And I was fast here! Best qualifying yet! I started at P2!! Can you belive it? 

The nerves started to do their work on me as soon as I placed the car on the grid. I had been practicing starts but I realy didnt get the car going off the line here. But luck was finaly on my side and I had a fantastic start!!

By T2 I was clearly in the lead!

After two laps I was about six seconds into the lead.

The feeling of having a clear track infront of me was amazing! But man did it put its toll on me! Adrenalin was pumping! My right foot was shaking like mad, I had big trouble getting everything right.

Then on lap 13 we came up on laped trafic, I went on the left side of the track to overtake in T5.

I had never taken this line in this turn. And to my surprise I could not see my breaking spot, something I noticed way to late and went straight off the track!

Luckily I was quick getting back on the track. But that was just about all the luck I had here.. I was probably panicking a bit, hoping I had a clear track and that Shane had taken the left side of the track I went back on the track.. He had not gone left seeing me coming back on track... And I slamed into him damaging he's car badly.

My car seemed fine though and I could continue close to my old pace. Saturo Ohno was closing in fast.

I protected the inside line going into the last chicane.

But Sature went alot quicker through it than I anticipated and we colided in the last turn.

This time I had the shorter end of the stick.

I had some rear wing damage and lost about one second per lap. This meant Bruno Pichette could close in on me.

He got me in the hairpin.

But I managed to utilize the drag and get up side by side and out breaked him going into the chicane.

And same thing again! Two or three laps in a row!

 We where runing close for about 5-10 laps or so.

Then Bruno slammed into the wall out of T3

He's car was to damaged and he had to abort the race. A sad way to end a great battle but it was alot of fun while it lasted! Realy clean racing from both ends. Thank you Bruno!

Now I just cruised to the finishing line taking second place second week in a row!

What a fantastic race! I had alot of fun here. And again Shaun, I'm sorry about taking you out. It was a stupid move from my part.


Now I'm looking forward to Interlagos! Another amazing legendary track!

See you in Brazil!

Suzuka

Week 5 Suzuka

Its not my first time here in Japan. I raced here in a Ford GT 40 a couple of years ago. Its a fantastic track that I know pretty well. It was still very tough to get through the Esses and the Spoon without loosing to much time. After not alot of practice realy, we managed to put together a good car with decent speed. I did some laps in practice, but it wasnt untill qualifying that I was going to shine. I put down a lap over half a second quicker than my previous best! This put my all the way up into P3!! What a fantastic start!

Then it was race time, and nerves started to realy build with the pressure.

Off we go!

I had a horrible start! I was way to slow on the throttle, this made me realy ealy slow and alot of cars got past me before T1.

Luckily I wasnt to rattled by this and got back to speed quickly.

Then the next corner I see Mark Pickford flying of the track!

Does this picture seem familliar to anyone? :D

After a lap or so a couple of people had run of the track and I was hunting down John G Hill for P2.

Man this old man is quick! Im thinking to myself, aint he gone make a mistake soon?!

I was a little bit faster than him but not enough to get past him.Its amazing how a man in his age can concentrate that hard for that long! Pluss being pressured.

We started to hunt down Marek Glab. Slowly gaining on him.

Then he lost his car going over the curbes before the hairpin.

Both me and John got by him.

Now I was the one getting pressured. I wasnt as strong as John and I started to buckle after a few short laps. Loosing the car got full opposit lock through T1.

We went side by side through almost all of the Esses!

Then after some laps I missed the exit of spoon and Marek got a run on me going down the straight towards 130R.

But then sadly, a couple of laps later Marek lost it on the xit of 130R and went of going hard into the wall!

It was a pretty scary sight from my car.

I was now five second behind John and there was no point in trying to catch him and I had over 15 seconds down to the next car. So there was no point in pushing and I just walked home for my first podium finish in the F1 serries! What a thrill! To think I got P2 after such a horrible start.

Thanks to Jägermaister and all the support from the fans!

See you at Montreal next week!!!