‘It’s going down to the wire’Â Neel Jani
Many experts predicted that this season would be the closest yet, but nobody quite expected the way the battle has ebbed and flowed, with all the major contenders having a mix of good races and bad luck.
Switzerland’s title campaign is a case in point. Before Jani and the team flew out for the Australasia double-header, they were 19 points clear in the title-race. After terrible races in Taupo and a disastrous Sprint race in Sydney, the team had fallen to 15 points behind the lead. Then, with its main rivals hitting their share of bad luck, the team fly home a slender three points off the lead.
‘You should count nobody out,’ Jani said. ‘We’ve seen this season how quickly you can win or lose 20 points. It is so open with the new points system. With the old points system it would have been hard, but with this new one, you can be sure of nothing.
‘Everybody is a rival and you should not count out anybody. One thing I do know is that the title will be open until Brands Hatch whatever happens. It will go down to the wire.’
Jani finished second in the Swiss car in the Feature race at Eastern Creek Sunday, ending a run of three disastrous races, where a combined total of just two points were scored. He had been set for third in the Sprint race, but went off the road in the damp conditions on the final lap.
‘I just lost it under braking the car,’ he confessed. ‘I was 5km/h quicker into the corner than before, but I used the same braking point and that was enough to go off.
‘Obviously I got back out and finished tenth, but it was one of the lowest points of the season for myself, because it was my mistake. It was my first big mistake, actually.
‘But we’re still there so that gives me a lot of optimism. We have the pace, we just need to finish these races. We will going to Durban optimistic because we have ran well there before.’