Photo: FIA F4 Japanese Championship
After twice finishing second to Tadasuke Makino at Okayama, Sho Tsuboi rebounded with a win of his own in the first Japanese F4 race at Fuji.
Such an outcome seemed unlikely when Tsuboi slipped to fifth at the start, yet he fought through the field to get himself into a position to win the race.
Makino started from pole but let Yuichi Mikasa through into the lead, only to retake first a lap later.
Mikasa then dropped down to fifth and was subsequently passed by Tsuboi, before eventually retiring from the race.
Tsuboi, meanwhile, passed both Hiroki Ohtsu and Shinnosuke Yamada before stealing the lead from Makino.
Despite Makino’s best efforts, Tsuboi narrowly held on to claim his first win, while Yamada completed the podium, finishing within the same second.
Ohtsu took fourth ahead of Shintaro Kawabata and Yuya Hiraki. Tsubasa Mekaru beat Yuki Nemoto to seventh, while newcomers Taku Bamba and Kazuto Kotaka rounded out the top ten.
Race results
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time/Gap |
| 1 | Shou Tsuboi | TOM’S Spirit | 15 laps in 26:43.002 |
| 2 | Tadasuke Makino | RN-S | +0.090 |
| 3 | Shinnosuke Yamada | B-MAX Racing | +0.335 |
| 4 | Hiroki Ohtsu | Honda FDP | +7.451 |
| 5 | Shintaro Kawabata | Succeed Sports | +8.530 |
| 6 | Yuya Hiraki | RS Fine | +11.346 |
| 7 | Tsubasa Mekaru | Media Do Kageyama | +12.831 |
| 8 | Yuki Nemoto | KCMG | +13.050 |
| 9 | Taku Bamba | Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave | +18.436 |
| 10 | Kazuto Kotaka | TOM’S Spirit | +18.722 |
| 11 | Yuta Kamimura | Honda FDP | +19.374 |
| 12 | Nicolas Costa | VSR Lamborghini | +19.627 |
| 13 | Mizuki Ishizaka | Honda FDP | +20.023 |
| 14 | Junpei Kato | ma with SARD | +22.070 |
| 15 | Ryo Yamada | Garage Chabatake | +22.142 |
| 16 | James Munro | KCMG | +22.964 |
| 17 | Shunsuke Kouno | RS Fine | +23.156 |
| 18 | Yuki Shiraishi | Team A-One | +23.307 |
| 19 | Riku Hashimoto | Skill Speed | +23.845 |
| 20 | View Yamauchi | Buzz International | +23.985 |
| 21 | Katsuhide Kaneishi | Honda FDP | +28.256 |
| 22 | Tsubasa Amano | Media Do Kageyama | +28.277 |
| 23 | Yuya Tezuka | Leprix Sport | +33.347 |
| 24 | Satoshi Kosugi | NRS | +34.705 |
| 25 | Doyun Hwang | ZAP Speed | +36.836 |
| 26 | Katsuaki Kubota | Hanashima Racing | +37.254 |
| 27 | Kotoka Goibuchi | ma with SARD | +38.884 |
| 28 | Takashi Hata | Field Motorsport | +46.266 |
| 29 | ?Motor Mouse? | Challenge Racing | +54.271 |
| 30 | ?Flying Rat? | Challenge Racing | +57.476 |
| 31 | Tomoki Takahashi | Field Motorsport | +1:14.354 |
| 32 | Yugo Tanabe | S2R | +1:39.435 |
| 33 | Musashi Nakanishi | NRS | +2 laps |
| Not classified | |||
| Yuichi Mikasa | B-MAX Racing | +6 laps | |
| Takuro Shinohara | VSR Lamborghini | +8 laps | |
| Noa Satomi | Le Beausset Motorsports | +8 laps | |
| Miku Ikejima | Sutekina Racing Team | +15 laps | |
| DNS | Yoshiaki Katayama | ma with SARD | |