FNIPPON: Yoong Motegi race notes

Alex Yoong could not convert his good qualifying position of 6th on the grid into a good result at the Motegi's round 2 race of the Formula Nippon championship today.

After a dismal start where Alex dropped from 6th to 12th after the first corner melee caused by an accident, Alex was pushing hard to catch up. An early pit stop called by the LeMans team then saw Alex dropped to 15th of the 21 starters.

Alex then moved up to 12th again after a couple of drivers made mistakes and spun. On lap 14 Alex made a mistake on braking into the corner at the back straight and spun the car. He couldn't keep the engine going and retired.

"It was entirely my fault. The car was good and I could run good times with the guys in front but I pushed too hard to get closer. I kept the car on the track after spinning but couldn't keep the engine going. I'm sorry to disappoint my team and my supporters but this round is over. I will just have to look forward to round 3 in Mine now, to put in my best effort and not make any mistakes to get the result we need." said Alex.

Japan's N. Hattori of Team 5Zigen drove a storming race from 10th on the grid to win round 2 thus continuing his unbeaten run from round 1 in Suzuka last month. Hattori's total race time was 1h 15m 01.630s. J. Tachikawa of Team Kondo pushed Hattori home for second only 1.4s behind with T. Matsuda of Team Nakajima another 1.8s behind in third.

-AYR