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Yuto Nomura takes a hard-fought eighth straight victory
Yuto Nomura and DRAGONFollowing major time schedule changes caused by Typhoon No. 15 on Friday a 30-minute FP2 was hastily arranged to start at 7:55am on Saturday for Japanese Super Formula Lights championship.
With qualifying for Rd 13 just 40 minutes away, all the drivers were fully focused on final adjustments as the Fuji Speedway track rapidly dried including the record line under clear skies brought by the typhoon.
Several drivers posted under 1m35 early on, and in attack simulations seen in the closing laps Yuto Nomura in HFDP WITH B-MAX RACING – whose winning streak stretches to seven races – topped the session with 1m33.259. Yuki Sano (n Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC SFL) was second with 1m33.673 ahead of TOM’S team mate Rikuto Kobayashi (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC SFL) who set 1m33.704.
With each driver launching attacks on their fourth or fifth lap in the qualifying that started after another race event Nomura posted 1m33.082 to take pole position. Kobayashi qualified second with 1m33.248. Sano was third.
Start of Round.13■Opening lap sees various dramas
Rd 13 kicked off for 21 laps, the longest distance of this weekend 20 minutes late at 1:25pm due to repairs of barriers damaged during another race event.
Kobayashi made a flying start from second to leap into TGR at the front.
After battles on the run to Advan Corner Sano also overtook pole-sitter Nomura, only to brush Kobayashi’s rear when he came out of Dunlop side-by-side with Nomura. This sent Kobayashi spinning down to the back of the field.
Nomura took to the run-off area to avoid the contact, dropping to sixth as a result.
At the end of the opening lap, came Sano heading Esteban Masson (PONOS Racing TOM’S TGR-DC SFL), Yuga Furutani (Deloitte. HTP TOM'S SFL) and Yusuke Mitsui (DELiGHTWORKS) who lost several position at the start after getting wheelspin.
A fast-catching Nomura overtook Mitsui at TGR on lap three to move up to fourth, and then Furutani on lap five to return to podium contention.
Meanwhile, Sano running at the front was given five-second time penalty for the contact with Kobayashi. Kobayashi was also given a penalty for his jump start. In order to retain his lead Sano now had to make up for the penalty with more than a five-second margin as in the previous Rd 6.
Yuki Sano（Mobility Chukyo TOM'S TGR-DC SFL）
■Sano’s lead wiped away by safety car
Nomura got onto the tail of Masson and passed him at TGR on lap 13 to finally move up to second.
At the end of the lap his gap to Sano was 4.841secs, which increased to 5.116secs on lap 14 when Sano posted a sector best lap. Once it started to settle at just over five seconds the main focus now turned to how it would develop in the closing laps.
However, Sano’s lead was abruptly wiped away on lap 15 when Yasuhiro Shimizu was hit by a failure and forced to stop his GNSY RACING 324 at the exit of Dunlop, prompting a late safety car.
With the race restarting on lap 20 Nomura got alongside Sano at TGR, only for the TOM’S driver to retain his lead.
In the end, Nomura was unable to snatch back the lead on the road, but promoted into first place with the penalties applied, taking eighth straight victory as he crossed the line in second place 1.974secs shy of Sano.
Sano was classified fifth behind Masson, Furutani and Mitsui. Zach David (B-MAX RACING 324) completed the points in sixth.
In master class close battles were fought early on, and on lap seven Shimizu reclaimed the lead from DRAGON (TEAM DRAGON 324) that had been taken at the start.
Shimizu’s retirement on lap 15 moved Nobuhiro Imada (JMS RACING TEAM) up to the top of the class, but it was DRAGON who ultimately took the class win as Imada was also hit by a five-second time penalty for his jump start. It was DRAGON’S first victory since Rd 8 Okayama.
