FNIPPON: Quadra Sports Fuji summary

BAD LUCK FOR CARBONE AT FIRST FORMULA NIPPON RACE

Brazilian star Fabio Carbone has endured a tough start to his Formula Nippon season, where he is competing for the prestigious Dandelion team.

The first Formula Nippon race of the year took place at the Fuji circuit in Japan, which previously hosted the Japanese Grand Prix. The demanding circuit is one of Fabio's favourites, with several challenging corners in the shadow of the famous Mount Fuji.

Fabio qualified 14th on the grid for the race after experimenting with various set-ups during free practice. Although he would have preferred to start further up the order, Fabio still felt confident that he could achieve a strong finish by the end of the race. During the warm-up, he concentrated on preparing the race getting a good indication of his potential pace.

Conditions were dry on race day, but Fabio made a crucial and uncharacteristic mistake at the start. The Brazilian stalled on the grid, and under the rules he was forced to start the race from the pit lane. Despite being put at the back of a 22-car field with a considerable gap to make up Fabio lost none of his characteristic determination.

He passed several cars in spectacular style to end the race 15th but he knew that the result could have been considerably better especially as his team mate finished fourth in an identical car.

The 26 year-old commented: "What can I say? It was my mistake and I feel absolutely awful. I cannot remember the last time I did anything like that, but there is no point in dwelling on it. It's a tough lesson to learn but I just have to put it down to experience and look forward to the next race meeting. From the back of the grid there was not much I could do, so I just concentrated on overtaking as many cars as possible and getting to the finish. Time spent in the car is never wasted but of course I regret what might have been: that's only normal when unnecessary things like this happen. Anyway, I would like to thank again my team for the very good job throughout the week end."

The next round of the Formula Nippon Championship takes place at Suzuka from April 14-15 but Fabio will be in action before then when he takes part in the opening round of the Japanese Super GT championship this weekend in Okayama. The Brazilian will drive a Honda NSX for the Nakajima Racing team, run by former Grand Prix racer Satoru Nakajima.

-credit: qs