Gary Thompson overcame a frustrating Japanese Formula 3 Championship outing at Fuji International Speedway to score a pair of top-five finishes in rounds six and seven last weekend. Ireland's promising junior single seater ace had earmarked the former Japanese Grand Prix venue as the place to re-affirm his National Class title aspirations having notched up a double podium there last month. Indeed, Thompson's SGC by KCMG squad had worked hard to improve the Dallara-TOM'S Toyota since then and were confident that set-up changes would achieve just that. Initial free practice confirmed as much but when it came to Saturday's qualifying, raw pace was sadly lacking, leaving Thompson to line-up no better than fifth and sixth for the weekend's two races. Despite admitting his frustrations, the Aviation Display and Cebu Pacific Air-backed 19-year-old battled gamely throughout a dry and extremely hot opening race to come home fifth and at least register what might prove vital points come the end of this season. With little time to make effective changes before race one, the team worked hard to improve the car's performance overnight ahead of Sunday's second. There would be few opportunities to demonstrate their full effectiveness though after Thompson was squeezed into a spin on the run down to the first corner having made another of his trademark lightning getaways. Only a battling performance while nursing a damaged and ill-handling car over the remaining 21 laps would ensure he rescued another fifth place and handy points haul. Gary Thompson: "I can't hide the fact that we've had a challenging weekend. We made a lot of changes since the last round here in June which we thought would yield those couple of extra tenths that could turn our string of podiums into wins. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. Having said that it's important in these challenging situations to find the positives. While two fifths were less than ideal, we at least registered some solid points which might prove crucial at the end of the season. Race two could have also been a lot worse but I was encouraged that the changes made before Sunday allowed me to fight my way back up the order. The top five were all very close so without the contact we'd have been right in the hunt. We'll dust ourselves down and move on to the next round." This year's Japanese F3 Championship continues at Motegi on August 6/7.