Rain -> Wet -> Light Rain -> FOG -> Wet.
Everything but fine weather conditions throughout the race – Take home notes at the end of post.
The day was spent between the pit and the lookout over hairpin corner.
UPDATE: Finally getting around to sort out video and Youtube. Video of the startup and check procedure after last minute suspension changes (Only for the seriously keen).
The amount of rain just after the start (Kageyama steering).
Rain suddenly stops, but it’s still a pool.
A little more rain to keep Tanaka on his toes.
Then the epic fog – safety car sees action.
There are cars in there somewhere:
Fog lifts, Hoshino all out.
Although everybody expected the GT-R to walk away with the race due to the unexpected wet conditions on the weekend, qualifying and Sunday morning practice data already suggested that the race was going to be another day of data collection.
In December, an earlier protoype of this car was running 3 seconds faster in the wet, on wet tyres, than the race winning BMW today. So what went wrong? The wet tyres provided for this weekend were of a different compound than those provided in December to cater for the vastly different track temperatures. The tyres were so hard that the drivers were unable to get them into operating range.
The clincher is that Hoshino elected to go out on full slicks and during his session and beat the entire field for fastest lap of the day.
Gallery including some other randoms:
Nice shots.