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Takuma Sato

A highlight of the Suzuka weekend was a display by some of the cars from the famed Honda museum, and among them was a Lotus from the Camel era. The yellow machine was driven by none other than Satoru Nakajima, who even dug out his original overalls for the occasion. He did of course get a huge reception from the punters

Every Japanese driver since Nakajima has been in the great man's shadow, for various reasons. Even before he joined Lotus he was already famous at home after huge success in domestic racing, he was promoted heavily by Honda, he came along just as the country went racing mad and, above all, he was team-mate to the mighty Ayrton Senna. The fact that his own achievements in F1 were modest mattered not a jot. He was a star.

There have been many claimants over the years, but Sato is the first to really begin to usurp Nakajima, and he has attracted a whole new generation of fans. The big difference is that people believe that he can actually win, and thus came to Suzuka thinking it possible, as of course did the man himself. Even the most devoted fan knew that it would probably have taken a problem for Ferrari for him to climb the top step, but the team has been beaten this year.

In the end it didn't happen. Sato did a great job in qualifying and barely put a foot wrong in the race, and when he crossed the line in fourth he got a bigger cheer than the winner. It was another epic performance, like those in 2002 and 2003, and no doubt expectations will be high for next year.

But things were put into perspective a bit by the fact that Jenson Button, who went for two stops rather than three, finished way up the road in third. That definitely took a little shine off Sato's day, as did the fact that the TV cameras showed him holding his helmet, a result of a sore neck.

"It was a tough one," he said after the race. "But I did my best. I struggled a little bit for grip, to be honest. I didn't get a podium, that was the disappointing thing, but I tried my best. At least we got a good result. I felt a little bit of stiffness on the shoulder earlier this year, and it came up again."

It was all smiles in the BAR camp afterwards, although one got the impression that some folk would have preferred to see Sato on the podium ahead of his team-mate. Nevertheless, it was a fair fight.

"Three stops is on paper marginally quicker which is presumably why Michael and Ralf chose it," said Jock Clear, Taku's race engineer. "I'd have to say that Jenson performed above his strategy really. Obviously Ralf was very impressive, but I think that's the kind of pace we probably needed on two stops. We just didn't quite have it with Taku. He aggravated a neck injury, which didn't help.

"The risk with three stops is that you do get into a little bit of traffic, which costs you more on three stops than it would on two stops. Then there was the start when we were stuck behind Jenson who was on two stops. There were a few things that went against us.

"Ultimately they're racing each other, and there's nothing wrong with that. We knew that lying whatever we were, third and fourth, we were on two solid strategies and there was a team result there to be had. Jenson was not doing any harm by knocking a couple of seconds off Taku's race at the beginning, and then letting him go."

As Clear says, Taku lost out a bit in the early stages after being chopped by a very aggressive Button at the start. They did eventually swap places, although that was a decision they apparently made themselves after being given all the relevant data...

"Obviously it wasn't team orders, because that wouldn't be legal! I think Jenson realised that Taku was a little bit quicker than him. He'd been there for five laps, and he probably figured that was enough to swing the strategy his way, and then got out of the way."

It was perhaps no surprise to see three very experienced drivers on the podium, and David Coulthard challenging so strongly. The curtailed schedule in Japan did not make things easy for anybody, and perhaps tipped things in the favour of the veterans. Set-up and strategy was a compromise.

"I suppose it depends on your car and your tyres and everything," says Clear. "The tyre we chose to run was one that we were very confident on the Silverstone test. We also knew that it was very accommodating on set-up. Had we chosen the softer tyre we knew that it was a bit of a knife-edge tyre, which is why we didn't go for it.

"This tyre had a big, big window of set-up capacity, and I think both drivers were reasonably happy with their balance than in the race. Conditions not withstanding we would have qualified maybe a second quicker had we tuned the cars and got a better idea of how to work the tyres, but it's the same for everybody. You're out there on a level playing field."

The result might have been a little disappointing for him, but nevertheless once again Sato soaked up the enormous pressure and used it to his advantage, just as Nigel Mansell used to at Silverstone. He loves playing to the crowd.

"More than anything he likes to come here and entertain the fans, he likes to give them something in return. Obviously a podium would be fantastic, but it's the whole weekend. I think his plans were disrupted a bit, and I think he would have liked to have had a bit more running and just seen a bit more of the crowd. It actually turned out to be a short weekend, and he's disappointed about that."

If nothing else Suzuka all but secured BAR's second place in the championship, and Taku has played his part in that, even if Button has done most of the scoring.

"Obviously going into Brazil Renault will be quite confident of scoring a one-two," joked Clear. "So we've got to stay on our toes! But seriously, who knows what's going to happen. We saw Fisichella win in Brazil in a Jordan, so you just can't count it out. We'll go to Brazil and just do a solid job of covering the Renaults. I would expect us to be a little bit stronger relative to the Williams when we go to Brazil, but also having said that I think Renault might be quite strong - they've always been quite strong in Brazil. But it's quite a tall order for them..."

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