WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS
Apex might have celebrated Ben Utzer's pole, the first in 7 races for the team, but it can't have lasted long as the realisation that their championship contender in Joel Rautavaara is starting 15th after a Monsoon-esque qualifying session at Suzuka.
Seeing 2KF1 miss out entirely from the front row is something that hasn't been seen once this season, instead Harry Costello will line up on the front row, with Rui Martins in 3rd and the championship leader Nathan Cornes sneaking himself into 4th. Indeed, around halfway through the session, Rautavaara was holding top spot, Cornes just behind, but as the track dried, the Australian stayed with the pace while Rautavaara slid off it.
Oorjit Mishra has a great chance today from 5th, alongside Donald Brugman. Also there, Daniel Harvey, Stephan Bohner, Tapio Rinneaho and Vimal Ana make up the ten. Manolis Sigoulakis can be found in 12th, Rautavaara 15th alongside Cocks, while McNamara, Ishikawa and Yamaguchi are 18th-19th-20th.
Commentators Comments: We were expecting a straightforward qualifying, and we missed that by a hell of a lot. This session is big, championship big. Rautavaara is 11 spots behind Cornes already. All of the top 4 teams have one driver in the top 8 and one in the bottom 8. It's absolutely astounding. But the big picture is this: Rautavaara has to beat Cornes. He's 53 points behind and only 50 to go after this. He has to make moves, he has to be clean, he has to hope that the 'R' word (reliability) doesn't impact him. He has 40 laps to beat Cornes today or it's over.
And as if that wasn't enough, we've been given notice of the upcoming whether.
Better get your umbrellas...
Podium Tips: O. Mishra, B. Utzer, N. Cornes (+championship).