AL3 from the Cockpit- Japan

Since there's been no coverage on here about AL3 so far, I thought I might have a go at writing a column about last weeks race from my point of view, and looking forward to the Korean Grand Prix. I'm not a journalist by any stretch of the imagination but here goes....

Congratulations go to VR6_ROB for his victory by 40 seconds in the Japanese Grand Prix on Friday. The victory margin, however belies an event-filled race which saw the first meaningful punches thrown in the battle for the shortened AL3 championship.

Qualifying was a tight affair, with a 4-way battle for pole position between myself, VR6_ROB, Will-I-Am_3001 and deanocourtney94, with all four separated by less than a tenth of a second until I managed to put together a pretty decent lap to steal pole in the final seconds of the session, followed by Rob, Deano and Will, all still seemingly inseparable.

Off the line however, I got a woeful start, dropping to 4th by the first corner, where my start put me on the outside of the midfield and I ended up dropping another couple of places. I ended up behind benappleby, who made an error on the exit of the first of the Degma turns. I thought this was a larger error than it was and spun him turning into the second Degma. Allowing him back through put me back to last place.

Elsewhere in the start, Rob lead away but went wide at turn 1, allowing Deano through. Will lost places off the start and my teammate Liam-Mullen-1888 moved up into third. Deono then charged away from the rest of the field, showing an outstanding race pace compared to his rivals.

Back in my own race, I slowly worked my way through the field, with the help of DRS, until I made it up to second by lap 30. I then attempted to cut down a 30-second gap to Deano. This seemed futile however, as no matter how hard I pushed the gap kept growing. My attempts were ended on lap 33, though, when I got a front-left puncture in the snake section, forcing me to pit. I decided to gamble on soft tyres and a 3-stop strategy. This was a bad call.

Up front Deano was still leading serenely with Rob alone in second and Will third. This remained the case until on lap 39 Deano suffered an electronics failure which rendered him cruelly disconnected. This left Rob in the lead with myself having climbed back to second.

On the next lap, though, I suffered an issue of my own. A Chinese takeaway had been ordered, however the only other person in the house was at the bottom of the garden. I therefore had to park up in the gravel and collect it. This cost me any chance of victory and made my 3-stopper look even more ill-judged.

By the time I made my third stop a few laps later, I was in fourth behind Liam, who pitted a couple of laps later promoting me to third. Then the chase was on to catch Will for second, who was struggling on old prime tyres as I hunted him down on new options.

Rob went on to victory while behind I reeled in Will, closing into the final chicane. Will took the inside line but braked very early, struggling for grip. I went round the outside and gambled on being the last of the late brakers. Fortunately, the move worked, although will spun trying to fight back, and I took second. will still comfortably managed third with Ben and Liam finishing on the lead lap in solid fourth and fifth places.

As a result of Liam's solid finish our Williams team lead the constructor's championship, and I feel that we form a strong enough team to win that competition this season.

Overall I was happy with my pace over the weeked, and am optimistic for Korea, despite it not being my best track. I do however, expect a strong challenge from Deano and Rob. I also expect a new challenger to emerge. It could be a very exciting weekend ahead.

Driver of the Day: deanocourtney94
Pastor Maldonado award for hitting everything in sight: RosstheIcon
Kimi Raikkonen award for supreme consistency: VR6_ROB
Lewis Hamilton award for poor reliability whilst leading: deanocourtney94

Let me know what you think of the column, if anyone's read this far!

Nice one mate. It was a good read.

Only just noticed these threads. They're awesome, keep doing them!