NICOLA GIANNIBERTI:

BEATING TRULLI AND FISICHELLA. WITH NO REGRETS

The first races of the season always saw me as a front runner: with the Haase chassis and the Rotax engine prepared by Villa I had found a perfect feeling, so much so that I arrived in Suzuka with a second place in the European Championship rankings and, therefore, one of the drivers to keep an eye on. It must also be said that Dunlop tyres were doing really well that year, and I was their only top driver and had all the attention. Even in Japan things got off to a good start: I had the best times until Saturday. Then, however, the bad weather came in the pre-final on Sunday. We in any case raced on slick tyres, but the track was damp and in the first laps a contact made me spin. I lost several positions and had to recover lap after lap as the track dried. I finished in sixth position, while the top three were the favourites of the day before: Fisichella, Trulli and Manetti. In the final, initially, it was still the three of them who dictated the race. I struggled a bit to get back up, but once I got into fourth position I started to recover well. It was the decisive moment: at Suzuka, a fast track with long straights, the play of the trails is important and going up alone becomes difficult, so when I saw that I was able to catch up I understood that things could go well.