Leaving Fuji Speedway feeling disappointed with the overall result, but there were high points – both personally and for the team – and that’s motorsport, so we go again. It was a weekend that promised so much, as we looked to build on the efforts from last time out in Texas, but it ended with an early finish, despite our best efforts. The positive we take away was seeing the #27 bring home an unlikely podium to keep their championship fight alive.

On a personal note, and a very proud moment to kick things off at the start of the weekend when Sir Jackie Stewart visited the Heart of Racing garage. Alongside the amazing motorsport heritage and obviously a trailblazer in Scottish motorsport, Sir Jackie is also the founder of the Race Against Dementia charity, and so it was a real honour to welcome him into the garage and for him to see and sign the Race Against Dementia helmet that I originally wore at 24 Hours of Le Mans, and then used again this weekend. We have raised over £10,000 already this season with the helmet, which I am hugely grateful to everyone who has sponsored this cause, and this was a moment that will stay with me as we keep raising money for such a worthy cause.

The race weekend was thrown up in the air when extreme weather forced the cancellation of qualifying, with the grid then being set on the earlier practice times. It was frustrating to lose the chance see where we would have been in qualifying trim, and we arrived in Japan off the back of two strong results, and we lined up out of position in p15, but with six hours to make our mark.

The extreme weather thankfully passed, and race day was damp but with a drying track. The greasy conditions were always going to be a challenge, but also offered up opportunities. Gray made a positive start and carefully negotiated the tricky conditions and the various caution periods to chip away up the order. Within the opening hour, we were knocking on the door of the top-10, showing the pace we knew we had in the car. After the first round of stops, we were running well in P6 – a real high point of the afternoon, and reflection of the effort by the whole team.

Unfortunately, contact with a hypercar pushed Gray off track and the damage sustained from the impact with the barriers brought a premature end to what had been a strong and hard-fought run. It was a tough way to see a promising run brought to an early end, and it is disappointing for everyone on the team as we know there were solid points there for the taking.

The silver lining is the character shown by the #27 crew, who recovered from damage sustained in the closing stages of the race, but were back out for the fight in the closing stages and brought home an amazing P2 finish. Crawling back to the pitlane with a lost tyre at one stage, the prolonged safety car period to sort out the damage from the incident actually played to their strengths, and the crew got them back out to fight to the end. A huge effort, and shows the real spirit of the whole Heart of Racing crew.

So, not the weekend we were hoping or fighting for, but positives to take from it all, and we will regroup and go again. A big thank you to the whole team for putting us in with a fighting chance, and we will be back on the front foot in Barcelona in a couple of weeks.