June 8, 2019 Rd. 6 Okayama International Circuit

Fenestraz goes lights-to-flag for his fourth straight win
Home favourite Katayama claims his maiden F3 podium in second

Sacha Fenestraz(B-Max Racing with motopark) DRAGON(B-Max Racing with motopark)

Sacha Fenestraz (in B-Max Racing with motopark F3) won Rd 6 of Japanese Formula 3 championship on a fresh early summer day after the rain at Okayama International Circuit. Yoshiaki Katayama (YTB by Carlin) claimed his maiden podium finish in second ahead of Ritomo Miyata (Corolla Chukyo Kuo TOM’S F317I).

The qualifying started at 9:25am on Saturday the 8th of June in a strong wind to determine the grid for Rd 6 with each driver’s best times and the grid for Rd 7 with their second best times.

Putting in three sets of fresh into the session Fenestraz took pole position in a row for Rd 6 on his third set of tyres. Home favourite Yoshiaki Katayama took second spot on the grid, his best qualifying result, on the same strategy of three sets of tyres. Third and fourth were secured by Miyata and Charles Milesi (YTB by Carlin) respectively, both using just two sets of tyres.

Having qualified seventh by using two sets of tyres behind Enaam Ahmed (B-Max Racing with motopark F3) who used three sets of tyres and Sena Sakaguchi (Corolla Chukyo Kuo TOM’S F317I) who used two sets of tyres Hiroki Otsu (ThreeBond F318) was given a five-place grid penalty for an engine change.

Yoshiaki Katayama(OIRC team YTB)

For a formation lap that started at 2:40 pm Miyata, Milesi, Toshiki Oyu (TODA FIGHTEX), Shunsuke Kohno (RS FINE K&N F318), Ai Miura (ThreeBond F314) and Katsuaki Kubota (Planex Sma Came F3) lined up on their fresh tyres, while the others were on used ones.

When the lights went on one by one, and then out a bit more slowly than usual Ahmed made a false start from fifth on the grid to take a lead. Kubota also made a false start.

At the end of the opening lap came Ahmed, Fenestraz, Katayama, Miyata, Milesi, Sakaguchi, Oyu and Kohno.

Ahmed and Kubota were both given drive-through penalty at the end of lap two, moving Fenestraz into the lead, with Katayama and Miyata behind.

Fenestraz quickly set about pulling away with a series of quick laps under 1m24 secs, while Katayama was struggling to keep up with the leader due to his unstable car balance.

Miyata closely charged Katayama with a superior pace but fell just short of getting a chance for overtaking.

Behind them Milesi and Sakaguchi were left battling for fourth spot with no chance for swapping positions.

■Miyata eventually picks up a bonus point for setting the fastest lap after tense fight

Ritomo Miyata(Collora Chukyo Kuo TEAM TOM'S)

Fenestraz had built up over five seconds margin over Katayama even before he completed 10 laps. 1m23.468 that he posted on lap nine was the fastest at the time.

From here hunt for a fastest lap of the race would become tense. Having posted 1m23.871 on lap nine Miyata purposefully slowed down his pace by about a second for plenty of clear traffic a lap later, and then made a blistering charge to post 1m23.567 on lap 11.

The Tom’s driver made repeated attempts of this slowing down and making a charge, posting 1m23.512 on lap 14 and 1m23.449 on lap 18, and even though Fenestraz briefly outpaced him with 1m23.406 on lap 20 Miyata eventually picked up a bonus point for setting the fastest lap of the race as he posted 1m23.295 on the penultimate lap.

Keeping his lap times less than 24 seconds throughout the entire 25 laps Fenestraz went lights-to-flap with a huge lead of over 13 seconds at the line ahead of Katayama - who claimed his first F3 podium finish in second.

Despite his efforts to overtake Katayama proved unsuccessful Miyata nevertheless secured his first podium since the season opener at Suzuka. He will start from the front row on the grid for Rd 7 tomorrow.

There were no position changes behind the top three, either, albeit close battles to the end, as Milesi placed fourth with Sakaguchi in fifth and Oyu in sixth.

DRAGON (TEAM DRAGON F3) clinched his first Master Class win of the season.