Photo: Super Formula Lights
Syun Koide clinched the Super Formula Lights title with victory in the first race of the final round at Motegi, which he ended with an eighth win of the year.
Leading by Seita Nonaka by nine points and both Rikuto Kobayashi and Jin Nakamura by 23 points coming into the weekend, B-MAX Racing driver Koide topped qualifying for race one by 0.076 seconds ahead of Kobayashi.
While Nakamura had to make do with seventh, Nonaka was only 11th after suffering an electrical issue, and those problems would prevent him from even making the grid for the first race.
Koide made a good getaway and led Kobayashi by half a second after the first lap. It was only halfway through the 20-lap encounter that he grew his gap over one second, but the victory was enough to put him 20 points ahead of Nonaka – who got out on track for one installation lap – and thus be crowned champion.
Rin Arakawa, returning for this round in place of Master’s Cup driver Makoto Fujiwara in the B-MAX line-up, finished a distant third to complete the podium after holding off Souta Arao and Nakamura.
For race two, Koide took pole by the much larger margin of 0.632s over Kobayashi. The pair made an even start this time, going into the first corner side-by-side. Koide emerged managing to hold the lead, but Kobayashi fought back later in the opening lap to get ahead.
From there, Kobayashi managed to grow his advantage to more than a second in the first half of the race, while TOM’S team-mate Nakamura put Koide under more intense pressure.
Koide responded in the second half but Kobayashi ultimately clinched his third win of the season by 1.5s.
Arakawa slipped back from third to sixth on the opening lap, finishing behind Kaylen Frederick and Arao, while Nonaka was eighth.
In the final race of the season, Koide kept the lead from pole ahead of Kobayashi, while Yuga Furutani shot from seventh on the grid to win third in a battle with Arakawa through the opening turns. Nonaka meanwhile gained seventh places on lap one to run sixth.
Frederick got wide and crashed into the barriers exiting the final turn on lap four, triggering a safety car.
After the restart, Koide quickly re-established his lead, winning with a margin of 2s at the flag.
Second place for Kobayashi however was enough for him to clinch the same position in the final standings at the expense of Nonaka, who was unable to make further progress from sixth on a track where overtaking proved difficult beyond the first lap.
Results round-up
Race 1 (20 laps)
1 Syun Koide B-MAX Racing 35m11.029s
2 Rikuto Kobayashi TOM’S +1.146s
3 Rin Arakawa B-MAX Racing +10.548
4 Souta Arao Toda Racing +10.988s
5 Jin Nakamura TOM’S +11.661s
6 Kaylen Frederick B-MAX Racing +19.036s
7 Yuga Furutani TOM’S +20.515s
8 Reimei Ito LM Corsa +26.852s
9 Togo Suganami JMS Racing Team +27.535s
10 Tsubasa Iriyama Albirex Raicng Team +35.815s
Pole: Koide, 1m42.779s
Fastest lap: Kobayashi, 1m44.762s
Race 2 (14 laps)
1 Kobayashi 24m35.437s
2 Koide +1.553s
3 Nakamura +2.850s
4 Frederick +9.543s
5 Arao +10.114s
6 Arakawa +13.247s
7 Furutani +14.163s
8 Seita Nonaka TOM’S +14.986s
9 Suganami +17.868s
10 Ito +21.580s
P: Koide, 1m42.613s
FL: Kobayashi, 1m44.514s
Race 3 (14 laps)
1 Koide 29m15.302s
2 Kobayashi +2.020s
3 Furutani +3.114s
4 Arakawa +6.530s
5 Nakamura +7.164s
6 Nonaka +7.783s
7 Arao +8.350s
8 Suganami +10.411s
9 Ito +13.280s
10 Iriyama +15.007s
FL: Koide, 1m44.996s
Championship standings
1 Koide 114 2 Kobayashi 86 3 Nonaka 77 4 Nakamura 71 5 Frederick 46 6 Arakawa 44 7 Arao 43 8 Furutani 34 9 Ito 1 10 Nobuhiro Imada 0