April 24 2016　Round. 2 Suzuka

Yamashita makes it back-to-back wins from pole position, delivering TOM’S 1-2 as Tsuboi finishes second place
F3-N: Katayama recovers from poor start to take a second straight win

Winner Kenta Yamashita (left) & 2nd Sho Tsuboi (right)

On Saturday April 23, Kenta Yamashita qualified his ZENT TOM’S F312 on a second pole position of the season for Rd 2 race on third lap of his first attack, posting 1m.51.575. The front row was again dominated by TEAM TOM’S as Sho Tsuboi also secured a second place on the grid on his first attack in the ZENT TOM’S F314. The second row would see a different pair from that for the Rd 1 race with Daiki Sasaki (in B-MAX NDDP F3) in third place and Yann Mardenborough (B-MAX NDDP F3) in fourth place.

It rained at Suzuka on April 23rd after the opening race 23 full of high-level battles but the strong wind had dried up the track overnight before the Rd 2 race started in good weather. At 10:05 am Yamashita led the other 14 cars to the formation lap including the two that had crashed in the previous race as they managed to repair their machines.

Round 2 Start

● TOM’S’ pull away at the start leaving a pack closely contested

Start of the race was believed to be a key to success for the TEAM TOM’S’ watching out for the B-MAX Racing Team with NDDP’s who showed strong pace particularly in the sector three. Yamashita and Katayama both pulled away at the start and dived into the first corner as they had intended. At the end of the opening lap came the TOM’S pair, Sasaki, Katsumasa Chiyo (B-MAX NDDP F3) and Mardenborough.

Like in Rd 1 Yamashita already began to extend a margin to Tsuboi as early as on the opening lap. Behind them close battles would be fought among the B-MAX Racing Team with NDDP’. In trying to overtake Sasaki at the first corner on lap two Chiyo ran wide toward turn two, dropping down the order to six place, but nevertheless Sasaki was struggling with a bit slower pace than the two cars ahead in the early stages, allowing Mardenborough in fourth place to overtake him into the Spoon Curve on lap four as aggressively as the Briton had performed in the opening round.

Kenta Yamashita & Sho Tsuboi

Thus, the TOM’S pair would lead the field till the end with Mardenborough about five seconds behind, and a little further back a pack consisting of Sasaki in front, Keishi Ishikawa (TODA FIGHTEX), Chiyo and Tadasuke Makino (TODA FIGHTEX) was touring around for fourth place with each gap of less than a second. Meanwhile Tsuboi began to creep up on Yamashita toward the end of the early stages, the gap being reduced from more than a second at the end of lap five to 0.8 sec a lap later, and to 0.7 sec on lap seven.

However, Yamashita would keep his margin at about a second on the whole, ending up 1.184 sec ahead of his team-mate at the chequered flag to make it back-to-back wins. “I made sure the tyres would last as long as possible so I could make best use of it on the final lap,” said Yamashita.

Jann Mardenborough/B-MAX NDDP F3

“It was the first time ever for me to run a 17-lap race. Now I know how seriously it would affect the tyres at the end,” Tsuboi revealed.

“After battling with Daiki, and then Chiyo I immediately set about trying to catching up with the cars ahead but wasn’t able to reduce the gap. However, I’m happy with these podium finishes on my debut runs in Japan,” related Mardenborough.

A close battle among six cars over fourth place was decided when Chiyo in sixth place went off the track at the Degner on lap 12, falling all the way to ninth place and resulting in Sasaki, Ishikawa, Makino and Sena Sakaguchi (HFDP RACING F312) forming fourth to seventh places. Chiyo regained one position at the end to take the chequered flag in eighth place.

● F3-N: Katayama makes a stunning recovery from his early setback

Yoshiaki Katayama & DRAGON

Having taken pole position of F3-N Yoshiaki Katayama stalled his Petit LM Racing on the grid while despite having being penalised for his crash in the opening round DRAGON (B-Max Racing F308) worked his way from the tail of the field to take the lead ahead of Kizuku Hirota (Albirex F306TLM) and Zene Okazaki (Global Albi TLM) before the opening lap was completed.

The Rd 1 race winner, however, made the most of his strong pace continuing from the practice sessions to make a stunning recovery. “(After the stall) I calmed down myself and then launched a catch-up. Actually I enjoyed the race with more battles than yesterday,” said Katayama – who would make two places on lap two and pass Hirota on lap six before closing in on DRAGON to snatch back the lead on the outside at the first corner on lap ten. Even though allowing DRAGON to come closer again in the closing stages he ended up 1.642 sec advantage at the finish line to take a second straight win.

“I somewhat held back for fear of repeating a crash,” said DRAGON who finished second place ahead of Hirota.

The Rd 2 saw all the 15 cars on the grid finish the race.

Result & Entry List PDF