◎ Yamashita and Cassidy take a formation of 1-2 finish after
defeating pole-sitter Fukuzumi
Ogawa stretches his winning streak to five
In gradually drying but still partially wet conditions due to rain from the previous night all the cars opted for slick tyres for both the qualifying and the race of Rd 8 in the fourth race weekend of 2015 Japanese Formula 3 Championship held at Fuji Speedway on Saturday June 6th.
● Fukuzumi takes his first pole position in difficult conditions
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With the drivers breaking their best times one after another near the end of the 10-minute qualifying session Nirei Fukuzumi of HFDP RACING took his first pole position in the F3 championship as he posted a best time of 1m35.397, followed by Kenta Yamashita of PETRONAS TEAM TOM'S with a time of 1m35.430 and Mitsunori Takaboshi of B-Max Racing team with NDDP with a time of 1m35.465. Tsubasa Takahashi of HFDP RACING settled for 4th with 1m35.484 as he could not break his best time on his last run ahead of Nick Cassidy of PETRONAS TEAM TOM'S and Keishi Ishikawa of TODA RACING. It was just about two tenths of second that split each of the top six.
"I'm happy I took pole position for the first time. I think I improved the times almost as I had planned. Starting from pole position makes me nervous, but I'll concentrate on having a good start," said Fukuzumi.
Despite having missed the Friday's practice sessions due to an electrical problem Ryo Ogawa of TOM'S led F3-N class during most of the qualifying session with 1m38.668, but Ai Miura outran Ogawa with a time of 1m38.167 on her last run. "I knew we would have wet conditions for the qualifying, so I used a tyre set that I had stripped in the practice yesterday. The track was drier than I had expected, but it worked," said the EXEDY RACING TEAM driver.
● Early stages see fierce battles for top positions
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When the start grid presentation started 4 hours after the completion of qualifying at 1:30 p.m. the track had been completely dried, ready for engines to be on full blast at lower temperature for this time of year. Fukuzumi got a textbook start from his first pole position in to the first corner in front, while Yamashita almost had a stalled engine allowing Takaboshi to catch up at the first corner but narrowly keeping the second position after fierce battles at turn 2 and the Coca-Cola, and then reducing the gap to the race leader at sector 3 to set his sights even on Fukuzumi trying to pull away.
In F3-N class once Ogawa got ahead of Ai Miura with his superb start before the first corner, and despite allowing Miura to close in on the opening lap he extended his lead to 1.8 seconds a lap later and enjoyed a comfortable drive thereafter.
Being aware in a head-to-head fight in to lap 5 that he could not slipstream on the straight with his better pace Yamashita challenged the inside of Fukuzumi at the Panasonic (final corner) on lap 6, only to be rebuffed, and took the opportunity when the pole-sitter slowed down out of the Panasonic to finally snatch the lead at the first corner a lap later.
Fukuzumi was then caught by Takaboshi and Cassidy on the straight on lap 8, the three running in to the first corner 3-wide, and it was Cassidy who took the inside line to win the dogfight, with Takaboshi moving up to third place after overtaking Fukuzumi on his second challenge at the first corner on the same lap. Yamashita went on to extend his lead up to 2.5 seconds, while breaking his best on lap 8 and lap 9. Struggling with a lack of speed Fukuzumi, on the other hand, was overtaken by Daiki Sasaki of B-Max Racing team with NDDP as well at the first corner on lap 11.
● Yamashita notches up fourth win as Cassidy sets the fastest lap
In the last five laps, however, Yamashita was not able to enjoy a lonely cruise as once posting a new fastest lap on lap 11 Cassidy began to run at a better pace than his team-mate, breaking his best on lap 13 and setting the fastest lap on the final lap with even a better time of 1m34.454 than any of the qualifying times even though the differences in conditions make it impossible to make a simple comparison. Nevertheless, Yamashita managed to lead home Cassidy by 1.5s to notch up his fourth win with second straight win.
"I took the lead as I had expected, but I'm worried that only my pace was not good in the closing laps," said Yamashita. "Maybe this needs to be addressed for the next race tomorrow," he was happy about his win, but was not really happy about his performance. With Cassidy finishing second PETRONAS TEAM TOM'S took a formation of 1-2 finish for the third time this season. Daiki Sasaki duly stood in for Lucas Ordonez, who missed the race weekend to participate in the Le Mans 24 Hours as he placed fourth behind Takaboshi. Fukuzumi battled it out with Ishikawa to secure fifth place.
● Ogawa keeps pole-sitter Ai Miura at bay to win a sweeping victory
Once grabbing the F3-N class lead Ogawa was never threatened, and having lapped at 1m37s level he won a sweeping victory. Ai Miura also placed a lonely second ahead of DRAGON of B-Max Racing team.
"I am grateful for the team who set up the car for me so that it showed such a great performance though it missed the practice sessions," said Ogawa. "Hopefully I will be able to build up more lead tomorrow," he looked very happy with an 8-second advantage at the flag. With his sixth win it's about time he starts to think about class title.
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 |
| [Round8 Race Result] |
| Pos. |
No. |
Driver |
Team/Car |
Type |
Engine |
Lap |
Total Time |
Ave. km/h |
Gap |
Best Time |
Lap |
| 1 |
36 |
山下 健太
Kenta Yamashita |
|
PETRONAS TOM'S F312 |
Dallara F312 |
TAZ31 |
15 |
23'52.052 |
171.298 |
|
1'34.769 |
12 |
| 2 |
37 |
ﾆｯｸ･ｷｬｼﾃﾞｨ
Nick Cassidy |
|
PETRONAS TOM'S F314 |
Dallara F314 |
TAZ31 |
15 |
23'53.597 |
171.113 |
1.545 |
1'34.454 |
15 |
| 3 |
23 |
高星 明誠
Mitsunori Takaboshi |
|
B-MAX NDDP F3 |
Dallara F315 |
TAZ31 |
15 |
23'55.736 |
170.858 |
3.684 |
1'34.462 |
14 |
| 4 |
22 |
佐々木 大樹
Daiki Sasaki |
|
B-MAX NDDP F3 |
Dallara F312 |
TAZ31 |
15 |
24'01.533 |
170.171 |
9.481 |
1'34.875 |
14 |
| 5 |
7 |
福住 仁嶺
Nirei Fukuzumi |
|
HFDP RACING F312 |
Dallara F312 |
MF204D |
15 |
24'02.862 |
170.015 |
10.810 |
1'35.305 |
15 |
| 6 |
2 |
石川 京侍
Keishi Ishikawa |
|
TODA FIGHTEX |
Dallara F312 |
TR-F301 |
15 |
24'03.212 |
169.973 |
11.160 |
1'35.298 |
9 |
| 7 |
8 |
高橋 翼
Tsubasa Takahashi |
|
HFDP RACING F312 |
Dallara F312 |
MF204D |
15 |
24'05.235 |
169.735 |
13.183 |
1'35.499 |
9 |
| 8 |
19 |
ｽﾄｩﾙｱﾝ･ﾑｰｱ
Struan Moore |
|
KCMG F312 |
Dallara F312 |
TAZ31 |
15 |
24'05.699 |
169.681 |
13.647 |
1'35.159 |
14 |
| 9 |
28 |
山口 大陸
Tairoku Yamaguchi |
|
ﾀｲﾛｸ･ﾊﾅｼﾏ28号 |
Dallara F312 |
TAZ31 |
15 |
24'16.357 |
168.439 |
24.305 |
1'36.275 |
14 |
| 10 |
38 |
小河 諒
Ryo Ogawa |
N |
KeePer TOM'S F306 |
Dallara F306 N |
3S-GE |
15 |
24'28.653 |
167.029 |
36.601 |
1'37.008 |
13 |
| 11 |
3 |
三浦 愛
Ai Miura |
N |
EXEDY RACING F307 |
Dallara F307 N |
3S-GE |
15 |
24'36.928 |
166.093 |
44.876 |
1'37.554 |
14 |
| 12 |
30 |
DRAGON |
N |
B-MaxRacingF308 |
Dallara F308 N |
3S-GE |
15 |
24'53.012 |
164.304 |
1'00.960 |
1'38.619 |
14 |
| 13 |
13 |
吉田 基良
Motoyoshi Yoshida |
|
RSSwithB-Max312 |
Dallara F312 |
TAZ31 |
15 |
25'02.714 |
163.243 |
1'10.662 |
1'38.704 |
8 |
| 14 |
77 |
三浦 勝
Masaru Miura |
N |
ｱﾙﾎﾞﾙｱﾙﾃﾞｱCMS306 |
Dallara F306 N |
3S-GE |
14 |
24'57.682 |
152.823 |
1Lap |
1'39.123 |
14 |
| ***** 以上完走 (規定周回数 13Laps) ***** |
|
5 |
ｱﾚｯｸｽ･ﾔﾝ
Alex Yang |
N |
KRC Hanashima Racing |
Dallara F306 N |
3S-GE |
1 |
1'46.394 |
144.110 |
|
|
|
Fastest Lap 1'34.454 (15 / 15) 173.913 km/h 37 ﾆｯｸ･ｷｬｼﾃﾞｨ/Nick Cassidy / PETRONAS TOM'S F314
Start Time :13:53'16 Finish Time :14:17'08.052
*1 CarNo.77は、反則ｽﾀｰﾄにより、ﾄﾞﾗｲﾌﾞｽﾙｰﾍﾟﾅﾙﾃｨを科した。
*2 CarNo.5は、2015年全日本ﾌｫｰﾐｭﾗ3選手権統一規則第15条1.1)(他車への衝突行為)により、訓戒及び、ﾍﾟﾅﾙﾃｨﾎﾟｲﾝﾄ1を科す。
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