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Yuto Nomura seals 2025 SFL title with lights-to-flag win
Yuto Nomura（HFDP WITH B-MAX RACING）
The final race of 2025 Japanese Super Formula Lights championship Fuji weekend took place on Sunday in almost the same hot conditions as in Rd 14 under cloudy skies, but with no thread of rain.
Pole position determined according to the finishing order of Rd 13 was secured by Yuto Nomura driving HFDP WITH B-MAX RACING who had extended his lead at the top of the drivers’ standings to 111 points. Esteban Masson in PONOS Racing TOM’S TGR-DC SFL was his fellow front-row starter.
Yuki Sano (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC SFL) would start from fifth behind second-row starters of Yuga Furutani (Deloitte. HTP TOM'S SFL) and Yusuke Mitsui (DELiGHTWORKS) for a crucial battle that would determine whether he could remain in the title contention.
Start of Round.15■Nomura retains his lead at the start
Having come into the race needing to out-score Sano by just seven points to win the championship, Nomura made a clean getaway at 1:05pm, while Furutani got the best start of the leaders from third, breezing past Masson, a slow-starter from second before quickly pulling alongside Nomura heading into TGR.
The pair went side-by-side through Coca-Cola and 100R, but Nomura managed to defend his lead.
Zach David (B-MAX RACING 324) started from sixth to move up to fourth behind Mitsui, but was soon overtaken by Sano.
Furutani took advantage of his fresh rubber saved for Rd 15 to closely follow Nomura, keeping the gap to the race leader at around half a second even after lap five.
Meanwhile, Mitsui, running in third, saw the gap to the lead two open up and found himself being tailed closely by Sano.
Sano attacked Mitsui in to TGR at lap six, but the DELiGHTWORKS driver held firm. The duel for third spot soon evolved into a three-way battle, with Rikuto Kobayashi (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC SFL) – who had started from 11th on the grid and scythed through the field to fourth – joining in.
The battle for podium finish intensified on lap 10 when Kobayashi overtook Sano for fourth, forcing his teammate into a very difficult situation in terms of his title hopes.
Battle of Sano,Mitsui,Kobayashi.
■Fierce tussle over third spot continues
Kobayashi finally attacked Mitsui at TGR on lap 14, only for the pace of the pair to drop off while running wheel-to-wheel on the run to Coca-Cola, allowing Sano to shoot past both on the run to the hairpin.
The trio entered the final lap, with Sano in third ahead of Mitsui and Kobayashi, while fighting fierce tussle, especially running towards 100R, where a tire damage sustained through a brush forced Mitsui to park up his machine and retire.
Nomura fended off a closely tailing Furutani by 0.977secs at the line with lights-to-flag win and nineth of the season.
Kobayashi beat Sano to ultimately claim the podium finish in third. As a result, Nomura has sealed the 2025 Japanese Super Formula Lights championship title with the last event at Motegi remaining.
David was fifth and Kaylen Frederick (Pilot ONE Racing with B-MAX) was sixth.
In master class Nobuhiro Imada (JMS RACING with B-MAX) took the lead from DRAGON (TEAM DRAGON 324) at the start.
DRAGON got alongside Imada on lap three to engage in a close battle, but Yasuhiro Shimizu (GNSY RACING 324) came from behind to overtake them before snatching the lead he would retain to the chequered flag. The result delivered Shimizu his first win since Rd 9 and moved him into the title lead.
