Kazuki's Japanese Blog: Sunday

Posted on Sunday 12 Oct 2008 and tagged with kazuki, blog, japan.

That wasn’t how I’d envisaged my first home Grand Prix to end. I didn’t make a great start from 14th on the grid, but as I accelerated away from the grid I was still confident of having a good race because I knew that I was on a competitive two-stop strategy.

Unfortunately, it all came to an end at the first corner. As I hit the brakes, I could see that there were problems ahead of me on the racetrack: Lewis Hamilton had run wide, taking Kimi Raikkonen with him, and everyone else was left jostling for position. I had space in front of me and thought I was going to make it though without incident, but David Coulthard suddenly cut across in front of me and we couldn’t avoid making contact.

I had to pit for a new nosecone at the end of the opening lap, which meant I was fighting for the minor positions thereafter. As well as feeling sorry for the team, I want to apologise to all my fans that came to Fuji Speedway to support me. Crashes sometimes happen in racing and this was a racing accident. At least I finished 15th and my race wasn’t over at the first corner.

For the next two days, I’m on PR duty for the team in Tokyo. I then fly to Shanghai on Wednesday, ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix next weekend. It’s another race in Asia and it feels a bit like another home Grand Prix. Let’s hope I can get a better result there than I did at Fuji Speedway!