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F-Nippon / Super GT Features & Interviews
Formula Nippon Feature - Lotterer Wins at Twin Ring Motegi
05/06/2006
Andre Lotterer in Team Tom’s Lola FN06/Toyota RV8J scored his first 2006 win in the third round of the Formula Nippon in challenging weather conditions. Despite the difficult weather – a damp start, followed by a mid-race downpour, followed by a dry finish - some 18,000 spectators watched Lotterer race his Bridgestone-shod car across the line.
Qualifying
Although heavy rain started just after the first qualifying session began, the track dried up toward to end of the session. All cars changed from rain tyres to slicks mid-way through qualifying and Satoshi Motoyama topped the timing board until Takashi Kogure took pole. In the second session, damp conditions prevailed, so the starting grid was shared. Kogure took his second pole position by just 0.009 seconds against Motoyama. Sakon Yamamoto was third and Toshihiro Kaneishi fourth.
Race
Damp track conditions prevailed for the race. All the cars fitted rain tyres except Loic Duval, the winner of second round in Suzuka, who started way back down the grid after a being plagued by electrical problem sin qualifying. Duval’s strategy paid off until the middle of the race as the track dried up, putting him in first position. With the arrival of more rain, he once again changed to wet tyres, but was foiled as the track soon dried. Lotterer, on the other hand, pitted quickly to swap to slicks as the track dried and climbed from fifteenth to first, fending off a hard-charging Benoit Treluyer until the end of the race.
Andre Lotterer
“I did not expected to win at the beginning of season because Tom’s team has been absent for a long time from the podium. I wanted to change tyres and I tried to put in good laps after the pit stop. It was a tough race. Track conditions were so difficult. I am so happy to win - Bridgestone tyres gave me excellent grip, even the slicks on the damp track!”
Yasuo Teranishi : Bridgestone senior Technical Adviser
“We had another difficult race. To win, you needed the right strategy, a good drive and more than a little luck. Lotterer run over 50 laps with slicks after he came to pit on lap ten. Our tyres gave him very consistent performance throughout the race.”
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