4 June 2014 ●Rd. 6 Okayama International Circuit

● Long-sought First Championship Win for Sasaki
F3-N: Koizumi Picks Up His Second Win of the Season

In the qualifying for the Rd. 6 at Okayama International Circuit Nobuharu Matsushita secured front row 4 times in a row from the previous 3 rounds at Motegi as he took pole with a time of  1m24.433s. “The car is in very good conditions. I think I can race well if I make a good start,” said the HFDP RACING driver.
Daiki Sasaki of B-MAX Racing Team with NDDP qualified 2nd a tenth second behind Matsushita, which was the highest place for him in qualifying of the season. The second row was dominated by the PETRONAS TEAM TOM’S pair, Takamoto Katsuta and Kenta Yamashita. Rintaro Kubo of TOCHIGI Le Beausset Motorsports topped the times in the F3-N class ahead of Hiroshi Koizumi (HANASHIMA RACING) in 2nd and Shohei Yuzawa (KCMG) in 3rd.



◎ Sasaki Takes Lead on the Wild Opening Lap
The race for a total of 18 laps started in less than 5 hours from the end of the qualifying in the very good dry conditions as in the qualifying even though it was in the rainy season. Sasaki made a perfect start to get the holeshot in to the first corner ahead of Matsushita, who was not bad in his clutch-meet timing but slowed down in shifting up. Matsushita also lost out to Katsuta at Turn 2 but immediately reclaimed the 2nd place on the run to the high-speed S-shaped curves. After going off the track before the first corner the 6th qualifier Tsubasa Takahashi managed to return to the track but fell all the way to the tail of the field.
Change in the qualifying order was going on – with Yamashita seeing no other course in a tussle but to run wide at Attwood and Mitsunori Takaboshi (B-MAX Racing Team with NDDP) overtaking Katsuta at the hairpin to place 3rd – until the opening lap was completed.

◎ Koizumi Keeps His Solid Lead
In the meantime, there was no order change on the opening lap with the F3-N pack followed by Yamashita and Takahashi except the late starting Kubo allowing Koizumi to take a lead. It was Koizumi that made the better use than anyone else in the class of the two cars powered by newer engines. Every time he had either charging Yamashita or Takahashi behind ahead of Kubo he opened up his lead, ending up sweeping to victory. Kubo was once closed in by Yuzawa but managed to hold off to finish second.
Sasaki set the fastest lap on the lap 3 and built up to 1.8s lead on the lap 10, but was edged up by Matsushita in the closing stages before the gap was reduced to less than a second on the final lap. As much as a second gap that he earned on the opening lap, however, eventually worked for Sasaki as he held on to his lead to claim first podium of 2014 and first career victory in the championship.
While the order of the leading pack of Sasaki, Matsushita, Takaboshi and Katsuta remained the same from start to finish Yamashita showed brilliant performance with scything his way through all the F3-N class cars on lap 4 to close in on Nanin Indra-Payoong (CERMO INGING Jr.) battling with Shota Kiyohara (TODA RACING) for 5th, both of whom he overtook on lap 10 and lap 13 respectively to finish 5th. Takahashi also overtook all the F3-N class cars on lap 7 to finish 8th. The spectacular catch-ups played by Yamashita and Takahashi made us all the more feel bad about the opening lap in which both went off the track.

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