FNIPPON: M Krumm Suzuka qualifying

Free Practice.

Michael took to the track Saturday morning, at the demanding Suzuka Circuit, setting the second fastest time of the session a few fractions of a second behind old rival and friend Motoyama. Both drivers set times in the range of 1:45.9.

1st Qualifying

Having only completed two days of pre-season testing, Michael elected to use old tyres throughout the first session - saving three sets of new tyres for the second session.

"I was very happy with the car this morning, but I wanted to try a few things, and here the second session is always the quickest so we decided to save our tyres and use the session as a test" Michael commented

2nd Qualifying

Michael qualified the Team 5Zigen Reynard in fifth position with a time of 1:45.596 on his final run with new tyres, the first two having been ruined by traffic and running out of synch with the other leading drivers.

Having made a simple installation run, Michael made his first qualifying attack, just failing to pass the pit exit before several cars exited the pits ruining the run leaving him in eleventh position. His second attack left him in eighth position, again suffering delays due to traffic.

Michael's final qualifying attack saw him leap to second position with only minutes to go in the session, this lap was also set in traffic costing him several tenths of a second. He was pushed back to fifth in the final moments.

"It has been a frustrating session, once we were out of synch with the other cars we struggled, on each run I suffered traffic. The lap after my best time was a 1:45.7 and I set the fastest first section time of all, but I had pushed the tyres hard on the previous lap, so I lost grip after the chicane and could not improve - this is the only clear lap I had this afternoon!" Michael commented after qualifying from Suzuka.

Suzuka Round One

Qualifying

2001.3.24 / WEATHER:CLOUDY / COURSE:DRY

Pos. No. DRIVER                 TEAM               BEST       1st        2nd
1    5   NAOKI HATTORI          5ZIGEN             1'44.941   1'46.082  *1'44.941
2    55  JUICHI WAKISAKA        ARTA               1'45.186   1'45.910  *1'45.186
3    1   TSUGIO MATSUDA         PIAA NAKAJIMA      1'45.293   1'46.413  *1'45.293
4    3   YUJI TACHIKAWA         Olympic KONDO      1'45.394   1'46.132  *1'45.394
5    6   MICHAEL KRUMM          5ZIGEN             1'45.596   1'47.583  *1'45.596
6    19  SATOSHI MOTOYAMA       excite IMPUL       1'45.636   1'45.673  *1'45.636
7    12  SEIJI ARA              COSMO OIL CERUMO   1'45.730   1'49.293  *1'45.730
8    56  TAKESHI TSUCHIY        AARTA              1'45.913   1'46.002  *1'45.913
9    68  HIDEKI NODA            DoCoMo DANDELION   1'46.045  *1'46.045   1'46.484
10   7   ALEX YOONG             LeMans             1'46.117   1'46.990  *1'46.117
11   11  MASAMI KAGEYAMA        COSMO OIL CERUMO   1'46.437   1'48.274  *1'46.437
12   2   RALPH FIRMAN           PIAA NAKAJIMA      1'46.443   1'46.867  *1'46.443
13   69  JAROSLAW WIERCZUK      DoCoMo DANDELION   1'46.553   1'47.791  *1'46.553
14   8   YUDAI IGARASHI         LeMans             1'46.602   1'46.900  *1'46.602
15   10  ANDRE COUTO            Team Morinaga NOVA 1'46.679   1'46.885  *1'46.679
16   37  MASAHIKO KAGEYAMA      TAKAGI B-1         1'46.853   1'49.138  *1'46.853
17   9   RICHARD LYONS          Team Morinaga NOVA 1'47.078   1'48.843  *1'47.078
18   20  NARAIN KARTHIKEYAN     excite IMPUL       1'47.840   1'49.012  *1'47.840
19   36  TETSUJI TAMANAKA       TAKAGI B-1         1'49.267  *1'49.267  -
     4   KATSUTOMO KANEISHI     Olympic KONDO (P.P. 107%) 1'52.286

-Jules