Fuji - A weekend to forget for Bertrand Baguette and Team Impul

The race got underway on Sunday afternoon in changeable weather conditions, with the cars setting off on a soggy track. Bertrand, who started fourteenth, got off to a good start and made up a few places. The track quickly dried out at Fuji Speedway and the Belgian driver stopped in the pits to fit his NISSAN Impul Z with slick tyres. In the following stint, he made a great comeback and was in fifth place before the safety car intervened for the first time on lap 35.

He restarted for another stint and stopped again in the pits on lap fifty-five to hand over to his team-mate Kazuki Hiramine, who rejoined the track in eleventh place. The race was interrupted on lap sixty-six and resumed after a long wait in heavy rain. As the safety car launched the pack on lap seventy-two, the NISSAN Impul Z was hit by a GT300 car and spun, plummeting to fifteenth place. Kazuki held on to this position despite a strategic third pit stop to change back to slick tyres on a once again dry track. He crossed the finish line without managing to move up in the rankings.

Bertrand's analysis

We had a complicated Saturday with engine problems before qualifying. We didn't have a good Q1, probably because we didn't have the right set-up for the conditions. We also made a poor tyre choice. I started the race in the rain and managed to make up quite a few positions. We made our first pit stop to fit the car with slicks. I then did a second stint and ended up in fifth position. During the second pit stop, which was longer than expected, Kazuki took over but rejoined the track in eleventh position. Unfortunately, he was soon hit by a GT 300, which caused us to spin and lose positions. We made a third pit stop to put the slicks back on but that strategy didn't work and we finished outside the points.

To sum up, it was quite a complicated weekend, both on Saturday and Sunday. But the positive thing is that we were able to rectify the problems we had with the car on Saturday and get back into a good race rhythm straight away. We're now going to concentrate on Suzuka and the aim will be to score some big points in the fifth round of the season.