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| 山下 健太 /PETRONAS TEAM TOM'S 松下 信治/HFDP RACING 高星明誠/B-MAX Racing Team with NDDP |
12 October 2014
Rd. 15 Fuji Speedway
● Sasaki and Koizumi both top off the season
finale by lights to flag
2014 season finale of Japanese Formula 3 Championship was held at Fuji Speedway on Sunday October 12. Daiki Sasaki of B-Max Racing Team with NDDP topped the times in a row in qualifying on Saturday in 1m34.799 to share the front row with team-mate Mitsunori Takaboshi. The second row was also dominated by the PETRONAS TOM'S pair of Takamoto Katsuta and Kenta Yamashita. Hiroshi Koizumi of HANASHIMA RACING also took 2 consecutive pole positions in F3-N class ahead of Shohei Yuzawa (KCMG) with Rintaro Kubo (TOCHIGI Le Beausset Motorsports) settling for 3rd place due to vibration from unbalanced tyres.
● Sasaki gets the holeshot
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With Matsushita and Koizumi having secured the championship and the F3-N class titles respectively in the previous round the attention was focused on whether these two could top off the 2014 season by picking up yet another win, or whether the others could prove themselves to fight back in any way.
Responding to the unusually tough race conditions with air temperature of 13 deg. C and track temperature of 16 deg. C due to the grid presentation starting much earlier at 7:50am every driver warmed up the tyres very hard on the formation lap.
As the red light went out Sasaki got the strongest start of the field for the 15-lap race. "The slow start was the major reason for my defeat in the previous round," said Sasaki. "So, I will nail the start for sweeping victory." As he had wished the pole-sitter leapt in to the first corner unopposed. Right down at the rear Yamashita and 5th qualifier Matsushita breezed past the somewhat late-starting Takaboshi and Katsuta, with Matsushita momentarily grabbing 2nd spot by a nose ahead of Yamashita, having entered the first corner side by side, and exiting behind the TOM'S, who had firmly defended the inside line. In F3-N class Koizumi got a reasonably good start from pole position, but Kubo went around the outside of the Hanashima through the first corner to take the lead.
● 2nd place in the ranking goes to Yamashita
as he finishes 2nd in the race
A leading group of Sasaki, Yamashita and Matsushita that had been formed as early as the end of the opening lap pulled away from the squabbling Katsuta and Takaboshi over 4th spot. The trio were equally distancing from each other for a while, but it was because Sasaki was actually controlling his pace to save the tyres, and as proof of this he set the fastest lap on lap 13. Yamashita appeared to try to build as much advantage as possible in early laps, and in fact he did keep up with the race leader desperately before beginning to lag behind halfway through the race. Matsushita, too, had difficulty with his pace, ending up having to face charging Katsuta in the closing laps instead.
Sasaki was never threatened as he had wished to lead home over 2s clear of Yamashita and scored his second win of the season. Yamashita was comfortably alone in closing laps to finish 2nd and place 2nd in the ranking.
● F3-N: Koizumi tops off the season by back-to-back win
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Unlike the head of the field that only saw small moves throughout the race including Matsushita's repeated overtaking attempts on Yamashita, there were dramas further back down the field in F3-N class. Koizumi was steadily whittling away every lap over 1s gap that Kubo had built at the end of the opening lap as Yuzawa was setting comparably fast laps until the trio started battling for the top spot on lap 6. It was Koizumi who made the first move by slipstreaming on the straight on lap 8 to overtake Kubo at the first corner, who was then challenged by Yuzawa at the hairpin on the same lap but fended off on this occasion. Koizumi extended his lead while Kubo and Yuzawa were battling for 2nd spot.
Yuzawa got ahead of Kubo on the inside of the first corner on lap 13, but Kubo also snatched back the spot on the inside of turn 2 before the two having a contact on the short straight down the Coca Cola and retiring, which left Tairoku Yamaguchi (TAIROKU EXCEED) 2nd ahead of Ai Miura (EXEDY RACING TEAM). Koizumi topped off the season finale by romping in home. Yamaguchi took his first podium in 2nd since Rd. 12 as Miura also took her first podium in 3rd since Rd. 10.
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| [Round15 Race Result] |
| |
No. |
Driver |
Team/Car |
Type |
Laps |
Total Time |
GAP |
Lap |
Time |
Laps |
| 1 |
23 |
|
佐々木 大樹
Daiki Sasaki |
B-MAX NDDP F312 |
Dallara F312 |
15 |
24:02.538 |
- |
- |
13 |
1:35.692 |
171.7 |
| 2 |
36 |
|
山下 健太
Kenta Yamashita |
PETRONAS TOM'S F314 |
Dallara F314 |
15 |
24:04.860 |
2.322 |
2.322 |
3 |
1:35.814 |
171.4 |
| 3 |
7 |
|
松下 信治
Nobuharu Matsushita |
HFDP RACING F312 |
Dallara F312 |
15 |
24:06.758 |
4.22 |
1.898 |
4 |
1:35.871 |
171.3 |
| 4 |
1 |
|
勝田 貴元
Takamoto Katsuta |
PETRONAS TOM'S F312 |
Dallara F312 |
15 |
24:07.640 |
5.102 |
0.882 |
3 |
1:35.566 |
171.9 |
| 5 |
22 |
|
高星 明誠
Mitsunori Takaboshi |
B-MAX NDDP F312 |
Dallara F312 |
15 |
24:09.697 |
7.159 |
2.057 |
6 |
1:35.786 |
171.5 |
| 6 |
2 |
|
清原 章太
Shota Kiyohara |
TODA FIGHTEX |
Dallara F312 |
15 |
24:15.192 |
12.654 |
5.495 |
8 |
1:36.091 |
171 |
| 7 |
38 |
|
ナニン・インドラ・パユーング
Nanin Indra-Payoong |
CERUMO・INGING Jr.F312 |
Dallara F312 |
15 |
24:20.396 |
17.858 |
5.204 |
5 |
1:36.259 |
170.7 |
| 8 |
8 |
|
高橋 翼
Tubasa Takahashi |
HFDP RACING F312 |
Dallara F312 |
15 |
24:22.112 |
19.574 |
1.716 |
4 |
1:36.195 |
170.8 |
| 9 |
21 |
|
ダン・ウェルズ
Dan Wells |
TDC F314 with DWI |
Dallara F314 |
15 |
24:23.161 |
20.623 |
1.049 |
7 |
1:36.594 |
170.1 |
| 10 |
6 |
N |
小泉 洋史
Hiroshi Koizumi |
Net Move Hanashima Racing |
Dallara F306 N |
15 |
24:43.887 |
41.349 |
20.726 |
6 |
1:38.021 |
167.6 |
| 11 |
28 |
N |
山口 大陸
Tairoku Yamaguchi |
TAIROKU EXCEED |
Dallara F306 N |
15 |
24:52.560 |
50.022 |
8.673 |
10 |
1:38.654 |
166.5 |
| 12 |
3 |
N |
三浦 愛
Ai Miura |
EXEDY RACING F307 |
Dallara F307 N |
15 |
24:56.446 |
53.908 |
3.886 |
7 |
1:38.781 |
166.3 |
| 13 |
13 |
|
吉田 基良
Motoyoshi Yoshida |
B-MAX RACING F312 |
Dallara F312 |
15 |
24:56.768 |
54.23 |
0.322 |
10 |
1:37.866 |
167.8 |
| 14 |
30 |
N |
DRAGON |
B-MAX with RSS306 |
Dallara F306 N |
15 |
24:58.160 |
55.622 |
1.392 |
6 |
1:38.681 |
166.5 |
| 15 |
77 |
N |
三浦 勝
Masaru Miura |
アルボルアルデアCMS306 |
Dallara F306 N |
15 |
25:06.622 |
+1:04.084 |
8.462 |
4 |
1:39.204 |
165.6 |
| ー以上完走ー |
|
62 |
N |
久保 凛太郎
Rintaro Kubo |
CG ROBOTル・ボーセF308 |
Dallara F308 N |
12 |
19:49.164 |
|
|
5 |
1:38.060 |
167.5 |
|
19 |
N |
湯澤 翔平
Shohei Yuzawa |
KCMG F308 |
Dallara F308 N |
12 |
19:49.428 |
|
|
4 |
1:37.981 |
167.7 |
Pole Position Daiki SASAKI 1:34.799 173.3 Kph
Fastest Lap Lap 3 Takamoto KATSUTA 1:35.566 171.9 Kph |
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