Photo: Super Formula Lights
B-MAX Racing’s Yuto Nomura marched to his first three Super Formula Lights victories at Okayama last weekend to level the title race.
Nomura was fastest overall in practice, leading team-mate Zachary David by 0.23 seconds, and carried that form into qualifying as his advantage over him grew to 0.308s in Q1.
Delightworks Racing’s Yusuke Mitsui and TOM’s driver Rikuto Kobayashi were both within 0.09s of David in third and fourth, and Le Mans 24 Hours podium finisher Esteban Masson was 0.413s off pole in fifth.
Points leader Yuki Sano was seventh, and he was only one place higher in Q2 as Nomura set a 1m21.961s to claim another pole by 0.453s. Mitsui narrowly beat Masson, Kobayashi and David to second.
Nomura had to fend off an attack from David on the inside at the start of race one, which then allowed Mitsui to get through into second on the outside at turn one. Davd got back past on the straight down to turn five, then Kobayashi overtook Mitsui later in the lap too.
It was a quiet race for Nomura thereon, while David came under pressure on lap seven, then again from lap 15 onwards. Kobayashi got alongside him but was almost forced off on lap 19, but got past on the next lap. By the end of the 25-lap contest there was a train of cars behind David.
Mitsui lost fourth to Kaylen Frederick on lap two, and to Sano 16 laps later. Sano was eighth after lap one, and it took a few laps for him to return to seventh. He overtook Masson on lap 15, then slipstreamed past Mitsui on lap 18.
Nomura led lights-to-flag again in race two. Masson took second from Mitsui into the opening corner, with Kobayashi following him through at turn five. Sano then hounded Mitsui, and locked up as he made a dive at turn five on lap seven. They were close again at turn four on lap nine, but Mitsui then held on through the race’s second half.
The best battle thereon was for 12th, between “Dragon” and Yasuhiro Shimizu. There were many close moments, and eventually Shimizu crashed out with just over two laps to go.
Masson shrank Nomura’s lead from 1.37s to 0.7s late on too before Nomura lowered his pace to win by 2.1s. Frederick overtook Yuga Furutani for seventh on lap 15 of 18.
Nomura started on pole for racre three and had an easy time again. Frederick overtook David for third at the opening corner, but could not match Kobayashi in second until the safety car brought him onto his tail. The cause was Reimei Ito flying off at turn five on lap 13.
Three laps remained when racing resumed, and Nomura was unfazed by Kobayashi’s attacks. Masson overtook Mitsui for fifth, but there was no other action in the points places.
Sano’s seventh place meant fellow Nomura is now level with him on points at the top of the standings.
Results round-up
Race 1 (25 laps)
1 Yuto Nomura B-MAX Racing 35m35.616s
2 Rikuto Kobayashi TOM’S +6.668s
3 Zachary David B-MAX Racing +10.035s
4 Kaylen Frederick B-MAX Racing +10.518s
5 Yuki Sano TOM’S +11.154s
6 Yusuke Mitsui Delightworks Racing +12.028s
7 Esteban Masson TOM’S +12.871s
8 Yuga Furutani TOM’S +13.396s
9 Reimei Ito LM Corsa +14.691s
10 Yugo Iwasawa Delightworks Racing +19.842s
Pole: Nomura, 1m22.154s
Fastest lap: Nomura, 1m24.159s
Race 2 (18 laps)
1 Nomura 25m33.356s
2 Masson +2.465s
3 Kobayashi +9.761s
4 Mitsui +10.743s
5 Sano +11.751s
6 David +21.324s
7 Frederick +21.623s
8 Furutani +23.365s
9 Kazuhisa Urabe B-MAX Racing +24.219s
10 Ito +24.963s
P: Nomura, 1m21.961s
FL: Nomura, 1m24.238s
Race 3 (18 laps)
1 Nomura 27m03.290s
2 Kobayashi +1.243s
3 Frederick +2.123s
4 David +3.634s
5 Masson +4.010s
6 Mitsui +5.487s
7 Sano +6.169s
8 Furutani +6.608s
9 Urabe +7.623s
10 Iwasawa +9.516s
FL: Nomura, 1m24.515s
Championship standings
1 Sano 53 2 Nomura 53 3 Kobayashi 33 4 Frederick 32 5 David 17 6 Masson 16 7 Furutani 11 8 Mitsui 9 9 Urabe 3 10 Ito 1