◎ Pole to Finish for Kenta Yamashita
The second race weekend of 2015 Japanese Formula 3 Championship was held at Twin Ring Motegi, and on Saturday May 9th Kenta Yamashita secured pole positon for the fourth race. Once he set 1m44.438, better than the time that he secured pole for the previous race with, the PETRONAS TEAM TOM'S driver even allowed himself to go back to the pits to save his tyres rather than doing yet another attack.
Mitsunori Takaboshi closely followed by just a narrow margin of 0.05secs. "Changing setups did work out very well but still need some adjustments," said the B-Max Racing team with NDDP driver. "If we find even better setups I think I can make it in the race." Nick Cassidy (PETRONAS TEAM TOM'S), Lucas Ordonez (B-Max Racing team with NDDP) and the HFDP RACING duo Nirei Fukuzumi and Tsubasa Takahashi rounded out top six.
Ryo Ogawa of TOM'S qualified first in the F3-N class just a thousandth of a second ahead of Ai Miura. The EXEDY RACING TEAM driver improved her personal best at the last minute and got up to the top, but just for a moment before Ogawa set even better time. "I am all the more disappointed with having failed to score a point rather than having placed second because the car was completely set up," said Miura.

● Yamashita Survives Takaboshi's Catch-up to Hold on to Top Spot
In contrast of the cloudy conditions for the qualifying it was favored by a sunny early summer weather on Sunday. The race started at 10:03 a.m. Although being caught into the first corner by Takaboshi who had a strong dash Yamashita narrowly managed to get out of the corner still in front and complete the opening lap ahead of Takaboshi and Cassidy. Ordonez's sluggish start promoted Fukuzumi and Takahashi to 4th and 5th positions respectively. In F3-N class Ai Miura got a good start to take a lead over Ogawa, but the TOM'S held out not to significantly lag behind for a chance to fight back.

● Yamashita, Takaboshi and Cassidy Secure Podium

In pursuit of taking advantage of his new tyres to take the top spot in early stages Takaboshi was aggressively challenging Yamashita's watertight defense, setting the fastest lap on lap 4, and when Cassidy started to fall off the pace of the lead two on lap 3 the race seemed to take on a duel over the lead, but it only lasted until later stages in which Yamashita extended his margin to one and a half second, ending up completing the entire 14 laps to his first victory of the season with no need for harder pressing on the accelerator. "In the previous race the start was everything! So I was hoping to get a good start to win this race. I'm relieved that I made it," said Yamashita. "I'm really happy with my first win in a while, but for now I have to concentrate on the next race in this afternoon." Cassidy could not make it back-to-back win as he finished 3rd behind Takaboshi. The grid order from 4th to 6th was maintained throughout the race as Fukuzumi, Takahashi and Ordonez rounded out top six.

● Ogawa Reclaims the Top Spot from Ai Miura

Meanwhile in F3-N class, under mounting pressure from Ogawa lapping closely behind, Ai Miura had a contact with Motoyoshi Yoshida of B-Max Racing team at the first corner on lap 3, letting Ogawa breeze past to reclaim the top spot. "I did nothing special but place first after the incident ahead. I was lucky, but actually I was going to make an overtaking attempt on that lap," Ogawa looked back.
Once positioned out in front Ogawa showed better pace than Miura, keeping opening up the lead every lap up to three and a half seconds, and while the final lap saw him slowing down he crossed the line to clinch his second victory of the season. The third place went again to DRAGON, who had won Masaru Miura after comfortably completing the 14 laps.