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Nomura defeats Sano to claim his fifth consecutive win
Yuto Nomura（HFDP WITH B-MAX RACING）
The skies cleared up in the afternoon, and Rd 11 started about three hours after Rd 10 for 19 laps, 7 laps shorter than the previous race with temperatures over 30C.
Starting from pole position was Yuto Nomura driving HFDP WITH B-MAX RACING who had broken his own course record in the qualifying on Friday with a stunning 1m12.554 to take his second pole position in a row.
Second was Yuki Sano in Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC SFL. The second row was shared by Zach David (B-MAX RACING 324) and Esteban Masson (PONOS Racing TOM’S TGR-DC SFL).
Start of Round.11■David and Masson make contact at the start
Both Nomura and Sano made clean getaways from front row, with the pole sitter robustly defending his lead from Sano through Turn one.
Having got a good start from sixth Yuga Furutani (Deloitte. HTP TOM'S SFL) leapfrogged to third as David and Masson made contact.
Reimei Ito (LMcorsa OTG 320) slightly ran off the track at Turn four, but managed to return to the track.
The order was Nomura at the front, followed by Sano, Furutani and Rikuto Kobayashi (in Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC SFL) when Masson was forced to park up on the outside of Turn four due to a damage on his machine, causing an early safety car to be deployed. David also came into the pits.
Sano immediately put pressure on Nomura when the race restarted on lap seven, but fell short of being able to overtake.
Behind them close battles were fought among a pack with Kobayashi in fourth heading Yusuke Mitsui (DELiGHTWORKS), Kazuhisa Urabe (B-MAX RACING 324) and Kaylen Frederick (Pilot ONE Racing with B-MAX).
Nomura continued to steadily open up his lead, while posting a fastest lap of 1m14.260 on lap eight, and the gap over Sano became 1.100secs at the end of lap nine.
Yuto Nomura（HFDP WITH B-MAX RACING）
■Imada makes it back-to-back master-class wins
Unlike the previous race Sano kept pushing and entered closing stages around a second behind Nomura while setting the fastest lap of the race of 1m14.016 on lap 13.
However, Nomura did not allow his rival to get any closer to hold on for his fifth consecutive win.
Sano settled for second for the second race in a row.
Furutani fended off a late charge from Kobayashi and Mitsui to clinch a podium finish in third.
Mitsui marked his seventh points-finish of the season in fifth. Urabe scored a point for the first time since Rd 2 at Suzuka.
Yasuhiro Shimizu (GNSY RACING) retained his master-class lead at the start, and soon engaged in a close scrap with Nobuhiro Imada (JMS RACING TEAM), which came down to the closing laps.
Imada launched attacks on lap 14 and finally overtook Shimizu at Turn one on lap 16, making it back-to-back class win.
DRAGON (TEAM DRAGON 324) was promoted to second place due to a 10-second time penalty Shimizu was hit for his jump start.
Yuga Furutani（Deloitte. HTP TOM'S SFL）
