PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING SESSIONS
Before qualifying we had two free practice sessions which was pretty much all the pre season testing we had. In the first session I was 3 tenths of the fastest driver who had done a lot of testing with his car. In the second session we made a lot of changes to the car as we had no testing to base the set up on. I then equaled the fastest time which gave me a lot of confidence for qualifying as I knew that there was more in the car. We had a very long debrief after the session and decided that we were going to make more changes to the car for qualifying. In V6 the qualifying works like F1 where some drivers get knocked out in Q1 and the fastest go to Q2 to fight for pole. I went out with about 3 minutes left in the session allowing me only 2 quick laps without mistakes. I set the fastest time in the session allowing me through to the next session. We waited till quite late in the session whilst some of the other front runners went out early. When I went out with about 5 minutes to go I set the fastest time but then with only one lap left Charlie set a quicker time than me. I pushed with everything on the last lap and managed to get pole back by 0.028 seconds. I was very happy with the pole as we had no testing before the event so to come out and get pole in my first race was great
RACE 1 SPRINT RACE 15 LAPS
We had some problems with the car in the pits right before the race therefore I didn’t make it out on grid to take up my pole position. So I was forced to start from the pit lane. I knew I would be able to get back up towards the front as I had good pace and Sepang is a track that allows a lot of overtaking. I passed quite a few cars in the first few laps while people were battling and with 5 laps to go I was in 5th. The two cars in front of me were quite close so knew a podium was in sight. I dived down the inside of Hafiz into turn one to take fourth then with two laps to go I tried to make the same move on Kevin but he gave me no space we made contact into turn two and he spun. I managed to hold on and finish 3rd. A podium in my first race was great for the team and we really showed our pace in the race setting the second fastest time.
RACE 2 FEATURE RACE 35 LAPS
I started on grid third for the Feature Race and got a good start I tried to go round the outside of Earl at turn one but was pushed wide allowing Charlie to come through leaving me in fourth. A few laps later the safety car came out because of a crash at the back. At the restart Ebrahim the leader at the time slowed the grid up a lot so we were all very close he then went and braked again forcing all the cars behind to make contact. The two cars behind me then went on to pass me while to safety car was still on track. I passed them back in the next two laps but the front two already had already opened a gap. I caught Charlie who was second from 4 seconds in front of me and finished just .3 tenths of him. My pace in the race was as fast as any one at the front so I was a bit disappointed with third as maybe if I hadn’t been passed while under safety car I could have given the front two a fight for the win. Over all I think it was a very good weekend and I am sure we will come back even stronger at the next round.
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