June 9, 2019 Rd. 7 Okayama International Circuit

Miyata grabs the lead at the start to take his second win
Fenestraz sets the fastest lap but his winning streak ends at 4

Ritomo Miyata(Collora Chukyo Kuo TEAM TOM'S)

Starting from the front row Ritomo Miyata (in Corolla Chukyo Kuo TOM’S F317) grabbed the lead from pole-sitter Sacha Fenestraz (B-Max Racing with motopark F3) to take his second win in Rd 7 of Japanese F3 championship on the 9th of June.

Sena Sakaguchi (Corolla Chukyo Kuo TOM’S F317) finished third behind Fenestraz after passing Yoshiaki Katayama (YTB by Carlin) on the opening lap.

Sena Sakaguchi(Collora Chukyo Kuo TEAM TOM'S)

According to the order of the second best times from the qualifying Fenestraz took pole position with Miyata as a fellow front-row starter. The second row was secured by Katayama and Sakaguchi, with Enaam Ahmed (B-Max Racing with motopark F3), Charles Milesi (YTB by Carlin), Toshiki Oyu (TODA FIGHTEX), Hiroki Otsu (ThreeBond F318), Ameya Vaidyanathan (B-Max Racing with motopark F3) and Shunsuke Kohno (RS FINE K&N F318) with behind in this order.

It was another sunny day on Sunday at Okayama International Circuit with lighter winds than the previous day. The formation lap started at 10:00 am for 18 laps, and when the lights went out Miyata got a stunning start. Troubled by his band new clutch “not feeling too good” Fenestraz got away sluggishly, allowing Miyata to nose ahead and Katayama to narrowly go side-by-side into the first corner.

Shortly after that Katayama now saw the fourth-starting Sakaguchi charging him on fresh tyres saved for this race. The Tom’s driver went around the outside at the exit of Attwood, catching up with Katayama at the end of the back straight before overtaking at the hairpin to third spot.

Behind them Milesi, Oyu and Otsu followed. Ahmed fluffed start, dropping him to 10th from the fifth on the grid.

■Fenestraz is superior to Miyata in setting fastest lap

Ritomo Miyata(Collora Chukyo Kuo TEAM TOM'S) Sacha Fenestraz(B-Max Racing with motopark)

Up front, Miyata gradually extended his lead over Fenestraz, posting 1m22.895 on lap three and 1m22.798 a lap later. Although setting the fastest lap on lap five with 1m22.586 Fenestraz was not able to keep up with Miyata lapping quicker on most of the laps as he dropped off the pace to the region of 1m22.500 to 1m23.500. “I was struggling with not well-balanced car,” said the Frenchman.

With Sakaguchi, Katayama, Milesi and Oyu each having a relatively lonely race behind the two leaders battles over eighth spot brought some excitements to the race.

Having suffered the delay at the start Ahmed quickly set about playing catch-up with beating Tairoku Yamaguchi (Tairoku Racing #28 car) in the Master Class on lap two and then passing Kohno on lap six before putting his car closely behind Otsu.

From here the battle between them looked to become more intense, but Otsu went off track by himself at turn one on lap 12 when the gap came down to less than 0.8 secs, bringing out safety car and wiping out all the advantages of each car.

The safety car finally pulled in at the end of the penultimate lap, throwing the field into a sprint race for just one lap, only to see no change in order on this difficult-to overtake track at Okayama, which means Miyata took his first win since the Rd 2 at Suzuka, preventing Fenestraz from marking five consecutive wins.

Sakaguchi clinched podium finish on his special appearance, with Katayama, Milesi and Oyu rounding out the top six.

Yamaguchi won the Master Class to revenge his defeat in the previous race.