April 06, 2011
Published on tags: Supercup


Deputising for absent Championship leader Bart de Vos, Jason Muscat set the quickest lap in a qualifying session that saw a three-driver battle for the pole and several other tussles for positions lower down the order. The Maltese driver, at his first 2011 Supercup race, narrowly edged Sam Millar and Samuli Leinonen, with Gregg Lawson's Woods winning the battle for fourth.

During Warm-Up, a minute of silence was observed to remember the devastation and the grief endured by Japan in the last few weeks. The Japanese anthem was played, and all the participating cars took part in a parade lap to salute the crowd who attended the event despite the tragedy that hit the country.

Jason Muscat was able to retain the lead at the start, and started building a solid, if not spectacular, lead over his rivals. It soon appeared Sam Millar was the only one capable to retain some kind of contact, but no real threat ever came the way of the Maltese until 6 laps to the end, when the Williamson driver narrowed his gap to 1.4 seconds. Unfortunately for Millar, this moment coincided with his tyres going off, the result of a very long second stint, and Muscat was capable of stretching his lead to over six seconds by the chequered flag.

Behind the leading duo, a beautiful battle for P8 between Ben Morgan, Gavin Thomas, Luke McKee and Leontin Nemet was interrupted by the Romanian missing his braking point at the Triangle and plunging in the side of Morgan, the damage forcing both to retire. Thomas and McKee were central in one of the most memorable Supercup battles in history, with the young Northern Irish able to match his more experienced rival and trade position several times - until a mistake by Thomas costed the Welshman a drive-through.

Among other impressive maneuvres was a daring overtaking move by Pavel Loknovski over Liam Hatchell.

The results see Millar cut his gap from rival Bart de Vos to 18 points, with Gregg Lawson raising to P2, just 8 points behind the Belgian leader. Thanks to his third place, Samuli Leinonen is now 10 points off the top of the rankings, while this results puts Nordsjoen within 10 points of Malta Force in the Constructors' Championship.

Japanese Grand Prix: Full results

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