June 28, 2015
Rd 11 Okayama International Circuit
◎ Takaboshi makes it back-to-back victories by winning
Rd 11 fromYamashita and Ordonez
F3-N: Ogawa enjoys a solid lead to win
The Rd 11 race was held at Okayama International Circuit on June 28 as the second race in the fifth event of 2015 Japanese F3 Championship. The qualifying was red-flagged early in the session by Alex Yan of KRC Hanashima Racing who went off the track at turn 2. The session restarted about 6 minutes later with just 6 minutes and 46 seconds remaining, forcing every driver – except Yan - to engage in intensified attacks.
● Yamashita and Ogawa take pole positions
At first Nick Cassidy topped the times but once posting 1m23.504 the PETRONAS TEAM TOM'S driver was unable to break it. It was Kenta Yamashita who did break it and took pole position with a time of 1m23.403. "The times were better than the previous qualifying (Rd 10) probably due to the better track conditions. I was worrying that the red flag interruption might affect me, but actually it didn't at all" said Yamashita.
Posting 1m23.441 just before the end of the session Takaboshi of B-MAX Racing team with NDDP moved up to second place ahead of Cassidy and his team-mate Lucas Ordonez – the order of the top four qualifiers the same as in Rd 10 - with Nirei Fukuzumi of HFDP RACING and Keishi Ishikawa of TODA RACING rounding out the top six.
Ryo Ogawa took his eighth F3-N class pole position with a time of 1m25.485. "I made no mistakes, and a new driving style went well, but I fell short in achieving my goal of getting within two seconds off the pole position of championship class and posting more than a second quicker time than runner-up of F3-N class," the TOM'S driver revealed his ambitions. Ai Miura of EXEDY RACING placed second with a time of 1m26.317 ahead of DRAGON of B-MAX Racing team.
● Takaboshi snatches lead from Yamashita
at the start of race again
In contrast to the dark clouds hanging over the sky on Saturday it cleared up on Sunday. Due to a disruption of the schedule of GT Asia race, a program held just before the F3 series, the start grid presentation of F3 series started 30 minutes late but that improved the track conditions instead to air temperature of 27 deg. C and track temperature of 42 deg. C. "Grid kids" and their parents were seen with sign boards in hands standing with smile by the 15 cars lining up on the starting grid.
Clearly it was imperative for Yamashita, who had allowed Takaboshi to take the lead at the start of the previous race (and hold on to the position), to avoid falling into the same trap. At the start of the Rd 11 race the pole-sitter successfully engaged his clutch but slightly slowed down in acceleration as Takaboshi was approaching from his right hand side. Despite his efforts to defend his lead Yamashita ended up seeing Takaboshi taking the inside line to breeze past him at the first corner again.
Behind the two Cassidy, Ordonez and Fukuzumi went through the first bends in this order, forming a part of a leading pack, like they did in Rd 10 race, while a little further back came Ishikawa and Tsubasa Takahashi of HFDP RACING.
Ogawa, meanwhile, nailed the start from pole this time and, even though Ai Miura and DRAGON were closely behind him at least on the opening lap, started extending his lead to 2.2 seconds on lap two and 3.4 seconds on lap 3.
● Ordonez moves into third just after the safety car period
With the top five drivers lapping with tenths of second apart with each other the safety car was summoned as Yan suffered a crash at the Viper on lap 4. When the safety car eventually pulled in on lap 7 Ordonez made best use of the gap reduced by the safety car intervention; heating up his rubber sufficiently before the restart paid off and moved him into to third position in to turn two after overtaking Cassidy.
The safety car, however, wiped out the huge advantage Ogawa had built up, but he pulled clear with a perfect restart, while the fierce battle between Ai Miura and DRAGON for second position was carried over, with the latter, on new tyre set that he had saved for this race, continuing to put pressure ahead at occasionally better pace.
The pack of top five drivers found themselves broken into two groups: a head-to-head battle between Takaboshi and Yamashita and a battle fought by Ordonez, Cassidy and Fukuzumi over third position, with Ishikawa, Takahashi and Struan Moore of KCMG a little behind. As usually seen in middle stages there were no big mistakes, no changes in order for fear of drop in downforce through getting too close to cars ahead, inevitably making every driver to focus on setting fastest lap in the halfway stages.
As such, Cassidy posted 1m24.937 on lap 12, and Yamashita broke it a lap later with 1m24.780, which would be the fastest lap, while despite trying to join the contention for fastest lap all Takaboshi could do was lap under 1m25 seconds. Before long the lap times settled into 1m25 seconds level. Ogawa scored a point with setting the fastest lap of F3-N class with 1m26.125 on lap 14.
● Takaboshi's consecutive win leaves the championship
title too close to call
The tense battle between Takaboshi and Yamashita that went into the closing stages with no decisive factor to change the order ended up Takaboshi holding on to his lead to make it back-to-back victories and pick up his third win of the season. Having not been able to capitalise again on his two starts from pole Yamashita settled for the second place, but grabbed the lead in the standings by four points as Cassidy also settled for the fourth place. With Takaboshi being one point behind Cassidy the championship title is now too close to call.
Making use of his advantages and good experiences in driving at Okayama for Super GT series Ordonez successfully scored three podium finishes out of the four races at this track by finishing third ahead of Fukuzumi in fifth place with Ishikawa behind who had won the close battle among three cars for sixth place to score a valuable point, rounding out the top six.
"I concentrated on taking the lead at the start of the race like I did yesterday as I believed that would lead to another victory even if I was slower in pace. Actually I reviewed the video of yesterday's race again and again. I'm glad that I developed the race just as I'd expected," said Takaboshi. "I was really disappointed, though, that my early advantages were wiped out by the safety car, but it was nice pulling away again. I know Yamashita was better in pace in closing stages, so that will be a new challenge. I hope to reflect good aspects of the setup from this race and aim at pole position and fastest lap next time."
● Eighth F3-N win for Ogawa means possibility of his
securing class title during the next event
Ogawa swept to victory in F3-N class by 27 seconds across the line over Ai Miura. "I regularly checked Takaboshi's times over the radio, trying to always post times within a second or so of him," said Ogawa, "From now on I will try not to miss out on any points." This remark came because he may be able to secure the class title in the next round at Fuji if he scored full marks there.
Having followed Ai Miura closely in early stages DRAGON gradually lagged behind before finishing third place for the tenth time.
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