Photo: Super Formula Lights
Honda junior Yuto Nomura wrapped up the Super Formula Lights title a round early at Fuji Speedway with two wins.
A typhoon barraged the circuit with rain on Friday, so free practice was postponed. FP1 was squeezed in at the end of the day, while FP2 started before 8am on Saturday.
B-MAX Racing’s Yuto Nomura set the pace, a 1m33.529s in the second session earning him top spot by 0.144 seconds over TOM’S driver Yuki Sano. His team-mate Rikuto Kobayashi was a further 0.031s behind in third.
Qualifying began just 40 minutes after practice ended on a dried out track, and Nomura remained on top. A 1m33.028s earned him race one pole by 0.166s over Kobayashi, with Sano 0.208s off pole and Delightworks Racing’s Yusuke Mitsui fourth.
Kobayashi was quickest in Q2, setting a 1m33.376s that Nomura got within 0.106s of late on. Yuga Furutani (TOM’S) and Mitsui were also less than 0.17s off pole, and Sano qualified fifth with a deficit of 0.284s to Kobayashi.
Nomura was late off the line in race one and passed by Kobayashi, but he had jumped the start and got a 10s penalty. Nobuharu Imada, who was last on the grid, got a five-second penalty for moving slowly at the start.
The top two were then side-by-side until Kobayashi cemented himself ahead at turn four. Nomura lost second at turn five to Yuki Sano, and tried getting back past at turn 10. At the corner apex, Sano tapped Kobayashi’s rear and he spun, while Nomura had nowhere to go and cut turn 11.
Sano began lap two leading Esteban Masson (TOM’S) by 0.949s, but with a five-second penalty for spinning Kobayashi, with Nomura in sixth and Kobayashi way behind the pack.
Nomura took fifth from team-mate Zachary David into turn one, and dived past Mitsui there on lap three. Furutani was cleared on lap five, into turn four, then it took until lap 13 to reach Masson. His failed defence of the inside down the pit straight allowed Nomura to go around the outside of turn one, and he provisionally had victory in his hands as Sano was 4.8s ahead.
Sano then held a five-second lead until the safety car appeared late in lap 17 due to Yasuhiro Shimizu having stopped at turn 12 two laps prior.
Racing resumed with two laps remaining, and Sano fended off Nomura’s attacks before pulling away. He finished fifth once his penalty was applied, while Kobayashi’s penalty put him 11th.
He caught and passed the backmarkers on lap five, made two overtakes to rise to 10th on lap six then faced a 5.5s gap ahead. Kobayashi passed two more drivers on lap 14, and went around the outside of B-MAX’s Kaylen Frederick at turn one on lap 16. But with no further progress after the restart and a bunched up pack, he was sent back down the order.
Nomura had another slow start in race two, dropping to fourth while Furutani tried going around the outside of Kobayashi at turn one but went wide then put a wheel off and dropped to sixth.
One position was reclaimed by Nomura before turn six, and Furutani went down Masson’s inside at turn one on lap two.
Kobayashi went on to win by 4.59s over Mitsui, and Kazuhisa Urabe was a penalised 10th after spinning Frederick at the opening corner.
Nomura had pole for race three, and this time held onto the lead while fellow front row starter Masson fell to eighth after a five-wide battle into turn one. Furutani was second, and kept Nomura in sight all race but was never close enough to attack.
Mitsui held third ahead of Sano, who was passed by Kobayashi on lap 10. Four laps later he tried diving inside Mitsui at turn one but went too deep. He tried passing again at turn three, and soon Sano was on their tail and got past. They went three-wide into turn 10 and Sano emerged ahead of Mitsui and Kobayashi.
They went three-wide again starting the final lap, and Mitsui remained side-by-side with Sano through the first two corners. Kobayashi joined again at turn four, where Mitsui flew off and retired, and then took third from Sano to end his title hopes.
Results round-up
Race 1 (21 laps)
1 Yuto Nomura B-MAX Racing 36m08.127s
2 Esteban Masson TOM’S +1.244s
3 Yuga Furutani TOM’S +1.808s
4 Yusuke Mitsui Delightworks Racing +2.660s
5 Yuki Sano TOM’S +3.026s
6 Zachary David B-MAX Racing +3.522s
7 Reimei Ito LM Corsa +5.954s
8 Kaylen Frederick B-MAX Racing +6.372s
9 Kazuhisa Urabe B-MAX Racing +10.300s
10 “Dragon” B-MAX Racing +12.486s
Pole: Nomura, 1m33.028s
Fastest lap: Sano, 1m34.781s
Race 2 (15 laps)
1 Rikuto Kobayashi TOM’S 23m45.602s
2 Mitsui +4.590s
3 Nomura +5.316s
4 Sano +8.515s
5 Masson +9.291s
6 Furutani +11.670s
7 David +21.798s
8 Ito +24.259s
9 Frederick +28.322s
10 Urabe +33.968s
P: Kobayashi, 1m33.376s
FL: Kobayashi, 1m34.461s
Race 3 (15 laps)
1 Nomura 23m50.458s
2 Furutani +0.977s
3 Kobayashi +9.807s
4 Sano +10.396s
5 David +13.302s
6 Frederick +15.756s
7 Masson +15.958s
8 Ito +17.077s
9 Urabe +23.341s
10 Yasuhiro Shimizu B-MAX Racing +46.195s
FL: Furutani, 1m34.569s
Championship standings
1 Nomura 121 2 Sano 89 3 Kobayashi 64 4 Frederick 35 5 Furutani 34 6 Masson 30 7 David 25 8 Mitsui 24 9 Urabe 5 10 Ito 1