With his second win this season #3-^P^|Storm closes the gap to the leader of the championship

On the well-known infield oval Kyoto National circuit, this weekend the 7th race of the season ran through 60 laps. There were 2 new teams for this event - Formula Racing Organisation (FRO) and Innovate Racing Team (IRT) . Both teams marked their debuts in the series with points scoring finishes. #1-FPR|Matze took the pole position in the Top10-qualify and with that he should have the best chances to increase his 6-point-leadership over #3-^P^|Storm, however an accident and #3-^P^|Storm's good strategy prevented a third win in row.

But first there was the Q1-qualifying, where the intention of all was to end up in the Top10. Times driven online in practicing indicated that 1:18.0 would need to be bettered to get through to Q2. #1-FPR|Matze burned around in 1:17.19, the fastest lap in this session, followed by #21-NWRT|VeTeR with a 1:17.30. Third place was #14-spdo|M.Bont, who replaced spdo|KiLl3r this weekend. The 1stBFA-drivers with 4th and 5th place both got through to Q2 - the first time they have done this together. Behind them on 6th place #15-spdo|FiredUp and #27-FRO|Hibex with exactly the same time of 1:17.64. 8th place went to the second FPRdriver 2-FPR|Tisu. #3-^P^|Storm only took the 9th place, but like everyone else he also got his second chance to fight for the pole position. To complete the Top Ten #20-NWRT|Schum took the last spot with 1:17.84. Detailed statistics of Q1 session you can find here

Like normal procedure Q2 start with burning fuel by all the drivers, so they have the lowest weight for the important lap with R2 tyres. Lap times decreases in the last minutes of the session. #1-FPR|Matze floored all before him with a brilliant lap time of 1:18.48, which earned him pole. Behind him #7-1stBFA|haelje took the second place barely in front of #3-^P^|Storm with 0.01 seconds difference, so more pressure in the direct fight for championship was guaranteed. Suddenly #3-^P^|Storm needed to overtake two drivers to decrease the championship gap. But at that moment nobody knows anything about the strategies of the drivers. The results and lap times of the other Top10 drivers you can find here.





With the green lights in the race #21-NWRT|VeTeR could overtake #3-^P^|Storm before turn 1. A small crash in mid-pack was the worst of T1, which was not as bad as expected. At the front #1-FPR|Matze drove a tremendous pace and built an early lead.

#7-1stBFA|haelje could hold his 2nd place and was able to increase the gap to his follower. At this point the fuel stratehy began to play out as he and#21-NWRT|VeTeR came to their first pitstop on lap 16. A slow stop for #7-1stBFA|haelje and #21-NWRT|VeTeR was able to overtake him in the pitlane. At the front #3-^P^|Storm started to turn up the heat. As one of the last stoppers he came into the pits at the end of lap 23, which put his Q2 lap time with a heavier car than his rivals into new perspective.





In the middle of the race there was the decisive accident for #1-FPR|Matze: in lap 33 he couldn't avoid #14-spdo|M.Bont, spun and lost vital seconds. Also there was an accidental touch from #7-1stBFA|haelje with #21-NWRT|VeTeR on front straight, which ends up with a broken suspension after hitting the wall for #21-NWRT|VeTeR.
In contrast #3-^P^|Storm drive a nearly flawless race and he emerged from his second pitstop in first position, taking advantage of his heavier fuel load to run longer. This advantage was maintained to the flag for his second win in the 2008 season, infront of the man on the 2nd place #1-FPR|Matze. Third Place and with that 6 points went to #29-IRT|MaRDoX and his team. Using a similar strategy to the winner, #29-IRT|MaRDoX was able to gain 10 positions in this race. #8-1stBFA|filo was able to catch points again with his 4th place and took the 6th place in championship with that. On 5th place was #25-cyber|Misko, but the gap to #3-^P^|Storm in the championship increases to 11 points with that result.
Points also went to #15-spdo|FiredUp (6th), #5-OMC|JET (7th) and the last points scorer and also the first points for his debut team - #27-FRO|Hibex on 8th place. As overviews you can additionally use the championship rankings and the race statistics

In two week the battle for championship will continue on Fern Bay Black!