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Rikuto Kobayashi claims first win of the season, ending Nomura’s winning streak
Rikuto Kobayashi（Mobility Chukyo TOM'S TGR-DC SFL）
Rd 14 of Japanese Super Formula Lights championship got underway at 9:05am on Sunday under clear skies with a magnificent view of Mount Fuji.
Rd 13’s pole-sitter Yuto Nomura in HFDP WITH B-MAX RACING initially topped the Saturday’s qualifying with 1m33.482, but Rikuto Kobayashi (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC SFL) posted 1m33.376 just before the end of the session to claim pole position.
Maintaining his strong performance since the last Sugo race weekend Yuga Furutani put his Deloitte. HTP TOM'S SFL in third. Yusuke Mitsui (DELiGHTWORKS) qualified fourth for the second race in a row.
minor error saw Yuki Sano (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC SFL) settle for fifth.
Start of Round.14■Mitsui moves up to second at the start
As the lights went out with a bit lower temperatures than yesterday Furutani made an aggressive getaway from third, going around the outside of pole-sitter Kobayashi at TGR, only to slightly run wide and drop to sixth behind Esteban Masson (PONOS Racing TOM’S TGR-DC SFL). Mitsui took this opportunity to pass Nomura to move up to second.
A little back, Kaylen Frederick (Pilot ONE Racing with B-MAX) in seventh and Kazuhisa Urabe (B-MAX RACING 324) in eighth made contact, which sent Frederick spinning down to the back of the pack. Urabe was judged to be at fault for the contact.
Behind Kobayashi proceeding to open up his lead Nomura was closely tailing Mitsui in second but struggling to prevail over his main rival on fresh rubber saved for this race.
Rikuto Kobayashi（Mobility Chukyo TOM'S TGR-DC SFL）
■Imada wins furious master-class fight
With Kobayashi continuing to enjoy a solid advantage at the front, Nomura repeatedly attempted to overtake Mitsui, but was unable to seize an opportunity still in the closing stages.
Kobayashi went on to take his first win of the season by a comfortable 4.590secs and piked up a bonus point for setting the fastest lap of 1m34.461 on lap three.
Mitsui held on for second place, delivering himself and DELiGHTWORKS RACING first podium finish. Nomura’s hope to take nine straight win was dashed as he finished third.
Sano gained one place to finish fourth ahead of Masson and Furutani.
In master class pole-sitter Yasuhiro Shimizu (GNSY RACING) snatched back his lead from Nobuhiro Imada (JMS RACING TEAM) at TGR that he had lost at the start, but was again passed by Imada at TGR on the following two.
The GNSY driver also allowed a slow starting DRAGON (TEAM DRAGON 324) to get ahead.
The three spent much of the race lapping within a second of one another, with Imada gradually opening up his lead for his six consecutive win.
