KMART DRIVER FITTIPALDI FINISHED FOURTH WHILE TEXACO/HAVOLINE/ KMART
DRIVER DA MATTA DROPPED FROM THE LEAD IN POINTS TO THREE-WAY TIE FOR
THIRD AFTER BEING HIT IN A LAP 1 ACCIDENT IN THE FIRESTONE FIREHAWK 500
IN JAPAN - TEAM COMPETED IN ITS 300TH RACE
- Kmart driver Christian Fittipaldi drove from his 14th place starting
position into his second consecutive points paying finish of fourth
place in the 201-lap Firestone Firehawk 500 at Twin Ring Motegi in
Motegi, Japan. He started in 14th place and was able to pass his
teammate Cristiano da Matta and another car coming out of the first
turn but rookie and fifth place starter Bruno Junquiera lost control of
his car exiting Turn 2 and the field had to begin split-second, evasive
action. Fittipaldi braked hard in order to decide whether to drive high
or low on the track to avoid the spinning car. While on the brakes,
Fittipaldi was passed by Paul Tracy and another car and was able to
avoid contact unlike his teammate da Matta who retired from the race.
The race was restarted on Lap 8 and he held 14th place until Lap 33 when
ninth place runner Michael Andretti pitted and subsequently retired
from the race, moving Fittipaldi into 13th. He held his position until
lap 46 when top-10 runner Michel Jourdain made his first pit stop. By
lap 54, as the field made their first stops, Fittipaldi moved into the
lead for a portion of the racetrack before he pitted much later due
to good fuel mileage. He rejoined the field in 12th place ahead of
Patrick Carpentier who had previously been ahead of him. On lap 56,
Fittipaldi moved into 11th place as Scott Dixon made his scheduled stop
out-of-sequence. On lap 77 he moved into 10th place after Paul Tracy
pitted and retired from the race with mechanical failure. On lap 92,
he moved into ninth place when Jourdain started off the next sequence
of pit stops. By his second stop on lap 104, Fittipaldi had moved up
the running order and into the lead for a portion of the track before
committing to the entrance of the pits. The team made a tire pressure
adjustment and sent Fittipaldi back on course. He returned to the
track in the same position he was in before the field began pitting but
was one lap down to the new leader Tony Kanaan due to track position.
After Dixon pitted, Fittipaldi moved into ninth place on lap 108. He held
his position until lap 125 when he moved into eighth place after Dario
Franchitti became the third and final member of Team Green to retire
with a mechanical failure. While others began their third stops,
Fittipaldi again moved into second place before he stopped on lap 154.
He returned to the race in eighth place but moved into seventh when
Dixon made his out-of-sequence stop. On lap 180 of 201, fifth place
runner Alex Zanardi made a stop for a splash of fuel and Fittipaldi
moved into sixth and on into fifth place when previous fifth place
runner Shinji Nakano also had to stop. On lap 187 or 201, second place
runner Tony Kanaan had to stop but was able to return to the track ahead
of Fittipaldi due to the amount of seconds he was behind the leaders
on track. On lap 191, CART reported that third place runner Gil de
Ferran's car was on fire and subsequently black flagged him although he
stayed on course a few more laps. Fittipaldi moved into fourth place
after passing de Ferran. Three laps after the report on de Ferran's
car, rookie Nicolas Minnassian crashed in Turn 4 and brought out a
caution period.
CART's Safety crew performed a speedy clean up from the
accident in order to prevent the race from ending under caution and the
race was restarted with one lap to go. Race leader Kenny Brack was able
to hold off Helio Castroneves for his first CART win as well as take the
lead from da Matta in the CART point standings. Fittipaldi moved from
12th place in the point standings to ninth with his fourth place finish.
Following are Fittipaldi's post race comments:
"Considering everything, this (fourth place) is like a victory today,"
said Fittipaldi, who scored points in three of his past five CART
events. "The car was good on every stint except the second one. My
tires went away quickly after the first stop but they were good again
on the next stint and I could pull away from Vasser on full tanks. We
worked really hard on fuel mileage and it helped us move up. I had a
very good start and passed a couple of cars. I passed my teammate (da
Matta) and another car but then had to get on the brakes hard when I saw
Bruno spinning across the track. Then Tracy and another car passed me
when I was on the brakes. They kept wide open. I wanted to slow way
down and be able to decide which way I wanted to go based on where Bruno
was. The rest of the race was fine and the balance of my car was good.
Maybe we weren't as strong as some of the others but we know we will get
there. This race was very important to Toyota and we were all working
hard to bring home a win for them. I was glad to be able to give them
their highest finish but neither Newman/Haas or Toyota are satisfied
with this finish and together we will continue to work hard to bring
them more wins. We had a slow start to the season but we are beginning
to pick up momentum after a fifth place finish in Nazareth and fourth
here. We have one more oval race until we go to the street race in
Detroit and we plan to work hard to improve before Milwaukee."
Â* Texaco/Havoline/Kmart driver Cristiano da Matta started the Firestone
Firehawk 500 in 12th place and was optimistic that he would have a good
car during the race as he has had the previous three races in 2001.
Unfortunately his race ended before it really began as he was hit from
behind by another car at the exit of Turn 2 on the first lap as the
field tried to avoid the spinning car of rookie Bruno Junquiera. Japan
marks the first race of 2001 that da Matta has failed to score points
toward the championship. He dropped from the lead in the Championship
to a three-way tie for third place while second place finisher Helio
Castroneves moved into the lead, nine points ahead of da Matta on the
strength of his second place finish. Following are his comments:
"Somebody hit me from behind," said da Matta. "I think it was Max
(Papis). I slowed down to avoid the accident and someone hit me and
that's it. I wanted to run a good race for myself and my team as
well as Toyota but we didn't even complete one lap. I'm incredibly
disappointed. Newman/Haas has given me really good cars in the race and
I didn't even get to see how good the car was. There are ups and downs
in this sport and we are looking forward to another up in Milwaukee. We
were a little behind in terms of qualifying well so we are going to work
on that for Milwaukee and hopefully bring Carl and good finish at his
track."
- On to the Milwaukee -The CART FedEx Championship series will take
Memorial Day weekend off and reconvene at the Milwaukee Mile for the
Miller Lite 225 on June 3, which is promoted by team owner Carl Haas.
-NHR
