Twin Ring Motegi was the only circuit to hold three F3 races in one week this season. Keeping up the best performance in Friday’s practice session Nobuharu Matsushita of HFDP RACING secured pole on Saturday for the Rd.3. No one could beat 1m45.348s that he set on his first attack.
“The team did a lot of things to make the machine faster and I’ve studied hard. All these things now come to fruition,” said Matsushita after the qualifying. “I’ll be more than happy if I can turn this into a victory.” Kenta Yamashita qualified second ahead of the B-MAX Racing Team with NDDP pair Mitsunori Takaboshi and Daiki Sasaki.
In F3-N class Hiroshi Koizumi (HANASHIMA RACING) secures his first career pole, followed by Rintaro Kubo (TOCHIGI Le Beausset Motorsports) and Tairoku Yamaguchi (TAIROKU EXCEED).

◎ Pole-sitter Matsushita Opens Up His Lead
The good weather continued throughout a total of 14 laps of the third race. The pole-sitter Matsushita got a good start in the dry conditions while Yamashita got an acceptable start to him with Takaboshi right behind him. Despite being caught by challenger into the first corner Yamashita kept the inside line and held on to his position. In the course of repeated duels Yamashita was finding himself increasingly distanced from Matsushita, while Takaboshi even conceded the third spot to Takamoto Katsuta (PETRONAS TEAM TOM’S).
Matsushita already pulled away by over 2 seconds at the end of the opening lap and then was extending the lead in the early stages. Yamashita was also picking up speed but the gap was not reduced. A little back down field Takaboshi scored valuable 1 point with setting the fastest lap, but he was also unable to close in on Yamashita. The big lead earned through the opening lap ended up putting Matsushita on top of the podium. It was the first win for HFDP RACING since Tomoki Nojiri won an Okayama race in 2012, and it was also his first career win in the F3 championship.
“I am very grateful for my family, friends, the team and Honda for the support,” said Matsushita. Takaboshi took back his spot from Katsuta on lap 3 to finish 3rd.

◎ Kubo Fends off Koizumi to Win
In F3-N class Koizumi bogged down with stalled engine and was immediately jumped by Kubo. This late start relegated the pole-sitter to 4th but Koizumi snatched back one place even before the opening lap was completed, and overtook Ai Miura (EXEDY RACING TEAM) on lap 3. He went on to engage in another catch-up attempt, but Kubo gave him no chance to come back, and secured his second win.

松下 信治/HFDP RACING F312	山下 健太/PETRONAS TEAM TOM'S