Fauzy loses potential podium place

Fairuz Fauzy could have been standing on the podium in the Feature race in Sepang, had he not made a bizarre pit stop in the 17th lap. The 26 year old, who was going strong in third place, heard a messgaeon his radio, asking him to come into the pits, by what he assumed was his team. When he reached there, he was immediately sent out again by his confused team. But the damage was done, and Fauzy lost a potential podium spot.

It is believed that the message must have been from another team, and was probably only heard by Fauzy. Currently the organizers are investigating this matter, to find out how this could have happened.

Fauzy, on the other hand, who began by leading the championship at the start of the event, eventually finished in 10th place, bagging at least the final point, from Italian car, driven by Edoardo Piscopo, on the final lap.

Trying to explain the event, Fauzy said, “Throughout the race my car was very strong, but I just suffered a few handling problems, nothing major though. The team called me in for the first pit stop, it was fine, and we went out in the same position again, with the same gap to second placed Portugal. After ten laps I was struggling with oversteer on the car. I tried to radio the team, got nothing, and then I heard ‘Box this lap’ twice. Then I said ‘Copy that’ and then I pitted. When I came in I saw the team was not ready, so I knew something was not right. I just had to carry on, but obviously I was very disappointed.”

Talking about the recovery, Fauzy remarked, “Considering we had the extra pit stop it was a really good recovery, the car was very strong. I think if we hadn’t had the pit issue, we would have had a podium easily. After the last pit stop, I was running about a second quicker, it’s tough for us all.”