Photo: Japanese F4
Toyota junior Yuki Sano won two Japanese Formula 4 races at Sportsland SUGO, although only got points for one of his victories.
It marked a return to form for Sano, who won the season opener from pole then went two rounds without a top-five finish. Last weekend he stepped up to Formula Regional Japan at Fuji Speedway and made an immediate impact by taking pole and victory in both races. He hoped that would provide momentum for his F4 campaign, and it proved to be the case.
OTG Motor Sports’ Kenta Kumagai was the surprise pacesetter in the first set of practice sessions by 0.007 seconds over Honda junior Yuto Nomura, then in the wet conditions of the second group of sessions Nomura led Toyota junior Tokiya Suzuki by 0.546s.
Sano came to the fore in qualifying, which was also wet, setting a 1m42.135s to take race one pole by 0.274s. Ponos Racing’s Kento Omiya was second fastest, with team-mate Rintaro Sato and Bionic Jack Racing’s Ryo Shirasaki the only others within a second of pole.
Drivers’ second-best laptimes set race two’s grid, and Sano claimed pole again. A 1m42.433s put him 0.222s ahead of Omiya and 0.833s clear of fellow Toyota junior Kazuhisa Urabe. Honda’s points-leading junior Ryota Horachi qualified seventh and fifth for the two races.
The track was still sodden and visibility was poor when race one began, so the safety car led the field for four laps. “Yugo” retired in the pits at the end of lap one.
When green flag action began, Sano was brave enough to brake late into turn one despite not knowing how much grip he would have at racing speeds. Shirasaki spun a few corners later, then lost another place to a great around-the-outside move by Kumagai.
The top three of Sano, Omiya and Sato pulled away from the rest of the field, and on lap six Makio Saito spun but got going again so no yellow flags were required. At the final corner Sato swept past Omiya for second.
On lap eight their battle was paused by the safety car returning so spinner “Kentaro” could have his car cleared. The field was released again on the final lap, and Sano kept Sato at bay to win.
Omiya was gapped in third, Urabe had to hold off Suzuki and Toyota junior Kiyoshi Umegaki took sixth from Nomura after an agressive side-by-side battle. Horachi only had two points taken out of his lead by finishing eighth. Shouma Arimura was a few places behind before spinning out.
The 34-car field was split into two on Sunday, as it remained wet, with the drivers usually fighting to top the independent classification getting their own race. They got to lap five of running behind the safety car before red flags waved and the race ended with worsening rain and half-points being awarded.
The Championship class fared even worse, with just one-and-a-half laps behind the safety car before red flags terminated proceedings and made it a points-free race.
Results round-up
Race 1 (12 laps)
1 Yuki Sano TGR-DC RS 30m04.086s
2 Rintaro Sato Ponos Racing +0.575s
3 Kento Omiya Ponos Racing +2.826s
4 Kazuhisa Urabe TGR-DC RS +5.237s
5 Tokiya Suzuki TGR-DC RS +5.543s
6 Kiyoshi Umegaki TGR-DC RS +6.775s
7 Yuto Nomura HFDP +9.467s
8 Ryota Horachi HFDP +10.396s
9 Kotaro Shimbara Kageyama Racing +10.980s
10 Tosei Moriyama Helm Motorsports +12.129s
Pole: Sano, 1m42.135s
Fastest lap: Omiya, 1m43.282s
Race 2 [Independents only] (3 laps)
1 Nobuhiro Imada B-MAX Racing 9m09.698s
2 “Dragon” B-MAX Racing +1.331s
3 Ken Alex Buzz Racing +4.208s
4 Isao Nakashima Rn-sports +5.618s
5 Masayuki Ueda Rn-sports +7.619s
6 Makio Saito Akiland Racing +10.285s
7 Shoichiro Akamatsu Eagle Sports +11.402s
8 Masayoshi Oyama Akiland Racing +13.326s
9 “Kentaro” Field Motorsports +15.903s
10 Hachiro Osaka Dr. Dry Racing Team +17.241s
P: Imada, 1m48.553s
FL: Yutaka Toriba, 2m46.347s
Race 3 [Championship class entrants only] (1 lap)
1 Sano 3m03.408s
2 Omiya +0.720s
3 Urabe +1.735s
4 Nomura +3.004s
5 Horachi +4.029s
6 Sato +5.003s
7 Suzuki +6.189s
8 Shimbara +7.641s
9 Moriyama +8.430s
10 Umegaki +9.981s
P: Sano, 1m42.433s
Championship standings
1 Horachi 95 2 Nomura 93 3 Shimizu 87 4 Moriyama 74 5 Sano 65 6 Shimbara 59 7 Omiya 40 8 Umegaki 34 9 Sato 36 10 Urabe 27