Engberink wins Japanese GP
Tim Engberink took his 2nd win this season, profiting of the late retirement from Utzer. The German held a comfortable lead of 15 seconds over Engberink, when his Renault engine blew up in lap 42. Jimmy Laad finished in 2nd, some 35 seconds behind Engberink. Starting from 14th the Brit showed some epic opening laps, climbing up to 5th by lap 5. Goddard finished 3rd, crossing the line just behind Laad. He too had a fantastic pace throughout the race, having started from last place after a mistake in his quali lap.
Ancevski took 4th place, ahead of the two Jaguars of Noack and Black. Harvey took 7th place, Cornes took the last point for 8th. Further finishers were Buurlage, Reed, Lintner, Diehl, and Kederer. Pole setter Rinneaho's race was ruined early on, when Utzer pushed him off the track in lap 1, dropping him to last. Trying hard to make up positions, he made several mistakes, until he crashed out in lap 22. Martins retired in lap 5 with an oil leak. Laskey dropped out with a water leak, Sigoulakis suffered a gearbox failure. Keranen crashed out from P3 in lap 22. Teammate Mishra's race ended 6 laps later when his gearbox failed while driving in 7th. Graham retired from 3rd with 10 laps to go, he too had a gearbox failure. Heymans retired the same lap when his suspension broke.
FIA Press Conference
@Tim.E: 2nd win for you, but you haven't been that happy with how the season went. Why's that?
@Jimlaad43: You were on fire these first laps, how did it feel to fly past one car after another?
@Mane Goddard: Stunning drive coming from last on the grid. What would've been possible without the mistake in quali?
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