‘I couldn’t believe my pace’

Williams Formula 1 reserve driver Luke Browning says he “couldn’t believe” the pace he demonstrated on his way to fourth place in only his second Super Formula race at Motegi.

Browning rose from a lowly 21st on the grid to score Kondo Racing’s best finish in the series in almost a year, leaving his mandatory pit stop until the penultimate lap of the race.

Tyre degradation was low across the board on the freshly-resurfaced Motegi track, with many of the drivers that left their stops later – including third-placed finisher Nirei Fukuzumi – managing to gain significant ground with an overcut strategy.

Matters were helped by early leader Toshiki Oyu struggling badly for pace and holding up a long queue of cars headed by Zak O’Sullivan, creating space in which Browning emerged after finally changing tyres at the latest opportunity.

“I think it just made sense with our pace [to stay out],” said Browning, whose personal best lap of 1m31.870s came up on lap 33 of 37.

“We had such good pace and such good degradation at the time that it made sense to stay out and every lap, I couldn’t believe that I could keep the pace up that I could. 

“I was trying my best – the degradation was good for me. Obviously, some people struggled, but I think in the past, I’ve dealt with a lot of degradation in Formula 3, Formula 2.

“I have great experience in managing the tyre, and I think that really came in [useful] today.”

Browning’s result marked a major contrast from Saturday’s rain-soaked opener, in which he initially finished 14th but was demoted to 20th by a penalty for making contact with O’Sullivan, albeit only in avoidance of an even bigger accident amid the spray.

He added: “Obviously it’s difficult when you go through tough sessions, and sometimes it’s not easy to always be positive and see the good side of it. 

“I think what today shows is just how good we can be when we get the car in the right window.

“When I continue to learn the new track, and I get up to speed, I can be the fastest. But unfortunately nothing happens immediately, and it just takes a little bit of time.”

Browning to “start from zero again” at Autopolis

Despite the positive start to his season, Browning was adamant that he will not allow himself to get carried away, as he heads to another unfamiliar circuit in the form of Autopolis for this month’s third round of the series.

“I think it’s difficult to build the expectation from here,” the 24-year-old said. “Obviously, we’ve had a great result, but we’re going again to a new circuit that we’ve not driven before.

“It’s going to be a new set-up on the car, and there’s going to be different learnings to take. There will be a different temperature, so we start again from zero. Hopefully we have the same progression and have a great result in the race. 

“But I think the expectation is very much just to continue this learning and show our progression, which I think I’m very happy with today.”

Additional reporting by Sophie Sun

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