Photo: Japanese F4
Rikuto Kobayashi beat fellow Toyota junior Jin Nakamura to the Japanese Formula 4 title in the final round at Twin Ring Motegi.
The pair were split by 0.038 seconds in qualifying for race one of the weekend, with Buzz Racing’s Ryoma Henzan 0.178s off Kobayashi’s pole pace in third.
The top three held position at the start, while several cars further down the order – including Toyota junior Yuki Sano – crashed out at turn one. Nakamura attacked Kobayashi through turn two then was alongside him for the next four corners before passing him at turn seven. Moments later the safety car was summoned as the turn one mess was cleared up.
Racing resumed on lap four of 13 and there was a tense battle for fifth between Kento Omiya and Kazuhisa Urabe. Rin Arakawa managed to get involved and pass Urabe, then soon he and Omiya were pressuring Henzan and Yuto Nomura who were fighting for third and fourth.
On lap seven Arakawa climbed to fourth, while the top two pulled away. But they had the rest of the field back on their tail at the end of lap ine as the safety car was summoned due to “Syuji” crashing out. A lap later Nomura pulled over and retired, then on the lap 12 restart Ryota Horachi was spun into the barriers but only local yellow flags were required afterwards.
Nakamura beat Kobayashi to victory by 0.495s, with Arakawa passing Henzan to take third and Urabe getting ahead of Omiya to finish fifth.
Kobayashi took pole again for the title-deciding race the next day, pipping Henzan to pole by an even smaller 0.01s. Omiya was 0.016s behind in third and Nakamura was 0.017s off pole in fourth.
Nakamura got into second ahead of Omiya, Henzan and Arakawa on the opening lap of the finale before the safety car was called out due to Honda junior Tosei Moriyama spinning off.
Urabe relegated Arakawa to sixth on the lap three restart, and he took back the position on lap six but was given a 10s penalty for forcing other drivers off-track. With the penalty applied Arakawa would end up finishing 12th, having been fifth on-the-road behind new champion Kobayashi, Nakamura, Omiya and Henzan.
Omiya had stuck with the top two throughout but never quite got close enough to actually threaten a move, and Nakamura also did little to prevent Kobayashi from taking his fifth win of the season.
Results round-up
Race 1 (13 laps)
1 Jin Nakamura TGR-DC RS 30m35.317s
2 Rikuto Kobayashi TGR-DC RS +0.495s
3 Rin Arakawa Zap Speed+1.326s
4 Ryoma Henzan Buzz Racing +2.559s
5 Kazuhisa Urabe Bionic Jack Racing +5.073s
6 Kento Omiya Ponos Racing +5.498s
7 Souryuu Tagami Zap Speed +6.078s
8 Jiei Okuzumi Bionic Jack Racing +6.676s
9 Itsuki Sato Helm Motorsports +7.052s
10 Yusuke Mitsui HFDP +7.146s
Pole: Kobayashi, 1m58.734s
Fastest lap: Kobayashi, 1m58.885s
Race 2 (13 laps)
1 Kobayashi 27m28.604s
2 Nakamura +1.260s
3 Omiya +1.712s
4 Henzan +4.293s
5 Yuto Nomura HFDP +6.541s
6 Urabe +7.067s
7 Okuzumi +9.004s
8 Mitsui +13.547s
9 Sato +13.829s
10 Ryota Horachi Akiland Racing +14.238s
P: Kobayashi, 1m58.954s
FL: Arakawa, 1m58.429s
Championship standings
1 Kobayashi 221 2 Nakamura 209 3 Mitsui 181 4 Nomura 167 5 Tosei Moriyama 101 6 Arakawa 75 7 Yuki Sano 74 8 Urabe 72 9 Shunji Okumoto 63 10 Horachi 56