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Yuki Sano’s good start sets up a fourth straight win
Yuki Sano (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC SFL)
Due to a dense fog and strong wind and rain that hit Autopolis from Saturday morning the organising committee of the Japanese Super Formula Lights second event decided at 8:20am to cancel qualifyings for Rd 4 and Rd 5 and use the times from the free practice 5 to determine the starting grid for Rd 4.
In the Friday’s free practice 5 held in dry conditions despite a light rain that had stopped falling just before the session Yuto Nomura driving HFDP WITH B-MAX RACING topped the times with 1m37.930, followed by Yuki Sano (in Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC SFL) who set 1m.38.392. Kaylen Frederick (Pilot ONE Racing with B-MAX) was third and Esteban Masson (PONOS Racing TOM’S TGR-DC SFL) was fourth.
Start of Round.4■Sano takes lead at the start in Rd 4 postponed to Sunday
The rain eased off on Saturday afternoon, but the conditions were still so foggy that Rd 4 scheduled to start at 4:15pm was postponed at the last minute to 8:30am on Sunday.
With the fog over Autopolis gradually clearing up on Sunday all the cars came out of the pits on slicks to slightly wet track.
Sano took lead from Nomura with a good start to head into Turn one ahead of Frederick. The pole-sitter Nomura dropped to third after getting too much wheelspin. Masson and Yuga Furutani (Deloitte. HTP TOM'S SFL) followed the lead three.
Sano quickly pulled away to open up his lead over Frederick running on used tires to 2.543secs at the end of lap three, leaving the B-Max driver to bunch up with Nomura and Masson.
About a second behind them a close battle over fifth was fought by another pack with Furutani heading Zach David (B-MAX RACING 324), Rikuto Kobayashi (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC SFL) and Yusuke Mitsui (DELiGHTWORKS).
Kaylen Frederick（Pilot ONE Racing with B-MAX）
■Yasuhiro Shimizu also celebrates his fourth straight master class win
Sano was enjoying a lonely race with a 7.018secs lead just past the halfway point of the race.
The middle stages saw a battle between Nomura and Masson intensifying behind Frederick running in second, but Nomura steadily held off the rival at Turn one on each lap to retain the third spot until lap 15 when he was given five-second time penalty for his driving manner against Masson.
Sano was never threatened and ended up a mammoth 13.320secs gap at the flag, stretching his winning streak to four. Masson marked a podium finish in third behind Frederick.
The battle over fifth saw no order changes and was won by Furutani who finished fourth as the time penalty dropped Nomura behind Furutani, David, Kobayashi, and Mitsui.
In master class DRAGON (TEAM DRAGON 324) passed Nobuhiro Imada (JMS RACING TEAM) on the opening lap to take class lead, but was handed a 10-second time penalty on lap four for his jump start.
DRAGON would have had to multiply his lead to maintain the position, but was closely tailed by Yasuhiro Shimizu (GNSY RACING 324), instead, and was finally overtaken at Turn one on lap 17 as his pace was beginning to slow down in the closing stages.
Shimizu picked up his fourth straight master class win. DRAGON also lost out to Imada to settle for third.
