Those Who Wait (Formula 1 - Daniel Ricciardo)

25... The Crash

As soon as we touched down in Tokyo on Monday evening it was a battle against jetlag. But from then on it was full speed ahead to the Japanese Grand Prix, my sleep clock eventually rectifying itself after spending the whole of Tuesday on my feet.

First we'd headed to a traditional sumo stable, where we were shown how to sumo wrestle, although I must say it was a rather uncomfortable experience. Then we'd visited the Japanese headquarters of Red Bull, where we met what seemed to be the Japanese equivalent of the Powerrangers. It was a little weird. But then we got to spend Wednesday looking around the city and taking in as much of it as we could before catching the bullet train to Suzuka.

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Signings and fanzone events were something we encountered at every Grand Prix weekend, they were just a part of the process, but in Japan it was quite unique. Nowhere else on the calendar gave us an experience with the fans quite like Japan.

On Thursday afternoon we found ourselves headed to a fan signing, the air of rain not fazing the Japanese fans in the slightest. They were as loud as ever, shouting our names as loud as they could.

"N-o-nee! N-o-nee!" I could hear being shouted amongst the noise of the crowd as we walked out to the small tent.

I took the seat to the left, Dan a few feet down the table to my right, a group of security and Red Bull press officers standing behind me as the flood of fans headed towards me.

Over the course of the next hour I sighed hats, photos and pretty much anything that was placed under my pen. But aside from just wanting our signatures and the occasional selfie, the fans also came to give us gifts and these varied greatly from the beautiful to the strange. Amongst the many things given to me were chopsticks with my name engraved on them, face cloths, sweets (I was sure Jen would confiscate immediately) and a very beautiful kimono.

Their kindness and enthusiasm was truly amazing, brightening me mood that had been dampened by the wet weather. Although I suppose everybody in the paddock was slightly subdued, all of our minds wandering back ever so slightly to the year before. A year ago I had been a mere test driver, standing at the back of Seb's side of the garage. It had been there as I watched the monitors that I had seen the aftermath of Jules' crash, and it was an image that would stay with me for many years to come.

The rain continued to fall throughout our track walk on Thursday and practice on Friday. But after going out early on full wet tyres and then going back out on inters when the track dried out a little, I seemed to be able to get my tyres turning on and found myself with the second best time of the first free practice session.

For FP2 I found myself as the first car out on track, taking the opportunity to do a practice start. With the track conditions now much better than in the first session; I topped the timing sheet on my first lap, taking fastest lap of the day before heading into the pits again. But after a few adjustments to the car I was yet again fastest on my second attempt at a lap. Now with the rain beginning to get heavier we opted to put the car in the garage. We didn't need to take too many chances, a car in the garage was far better than a car in the barriers.

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With the rain disappearing overnight and the track drying up ahead of the final free practice session. The change in conditions was a guess a bit of a throw to my brain, the car not responding quite the same and Dan giving a much better performance. But as I put down more laps in the dry the times started to get quicker, giving me much more confidence in the car ahead of qualifying.

I made it through the first two rounds of qualification in 9th and 8th. My game plan for the final round was then very much different to Dan's. He went out and set a few laps much earlier in the session, while with less sets of new tyres to my disposal I was to go out and set a single flying lap at the end of the session.