Autopolis Super Formula: Nojiri beats Yamamoto to win

After making his mandatory tyre stop early, poleman Nojiri spent the bulk of the 41-lap race in fourth as Yamamoto, Nick Cassidy and Ukyo Sasahara went for long first stints.

Yamamoto led after the second of two safety car periods and set a metronomic pace at the head of the field, quickly gapping Cassidy and putting himself in a position to threaten Nojiri - who held a net lead but struggled for pace immediately after the restart.

Eight laps after the restart, Yamamoto had put 15 seconds between himself and Nojiri, and by lap 30 the gap was out to over 20 seconds.

Yamamoto was just over 25 seconds clear when he pitted with two laps to go at the end of lap 39, and although he emerged clearly behind Nojiri he set a blistering pace on his fresh tyres and closed down a four-second deficit to just 0.6s at the chequered flag.

After Cassidy and Sasahara made their stops, Nakajima Racing's Tadasuke Makino, who was challenging Nojiri for the net lead before the second safety car, was promoted to third and maintained that position for his first Super Formula podium.

Next up were the best of the Toyota finishers, Yuji Kunimoto (KCMG) and Kenta Yamashita (Kondo Racing), followed by series returnee Nobuharu Matsushita (B-Max).

Matsushita had fought his way up from sixth on the grid to fourth with a strong start, but lost out to Kunimoto and Yamashita during the pitstop phase.

TOM'S driver Cassidy slotted in seventh ahead of his substitute teammate Ritomo Miyata, who briefly got ahead when Cassidy was struggling on cold tyres only for the reigning champion to swiftly return the favour.

Nirei Fukuzumi (Dandelion) was the big loser of the second safety car period, as he had run second behind Nojiri early on but slid all the way to 11th, finally recovering to ninth.

Toshiki Oyu (Nakajima) completed the top 10 after serving a drive-through penalty for illegally retaking his start position after stalling on the grid before the formation laps.

From 19th on the grid after his qualifying crash, points leader Ryo Hirakawa could only manage 12th in the end, although he had been running 10th before dropping to the rear of the field during the pitstop phase due to a slow stop.

Impul driver Hirakawa nonetheless still leads the championship, albeit by a reduced margin of 11 points over Cassidy.

Sasahara (Mugen) ended up 14th after his stop, having also stalled on the grid at the start.

Charles Milesi was 15th for B-Max on his Super Formula debut, a place ahead of Tatiana Calderon on the Colombian's return to the series.

Sacha Fenestraz's miserable run of luck continued as he lost his rear-left wheel on lap five, causing the first safety car, while a race-ending puncture for podium challenger Sho Tsuboi (Inging) was the cause of the second caution period on lap 12.

Race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Laps	Gap
1	16	Tomoki Nojiri	Team Mugen	41
2	5	Naoki Yamamoto	DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing	41	0.664
3	64	Tadasuke Makino	TCS Nakajima Racing	41	9.736
4	18	Yuji Kunimoto	carrozzeria Team KCMG	41	10.760
5	3	Kenta Yamashita	Kondo Racing	41	11.455
6	50	Nobuharu Matsushita	Buzz Racing with B-Max	41	12.114
7	1	Nick Cassidy	Vantelin Team TOM'S	41	13.274
8	36	Ritomo Miyata	Vantelin Team TOM'S	41	17.520
9	6	Nirei Fukuzumi	DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing	41	19.661
10	65	Toshiki Oyu	TCS Nakajima Racing	41	23.593
11	19	Yuhi Sekiguchi	ITOCHU ENEX TEAM IMPUL	41	24.380
12	20	Ryo Hirakawa	ITOCHU ENEX TEAM IMPUL	41	25.276
13	38	Hiroaki Ishiura	JMS P.mu/cerumo-INGING	41	28.273
14	15	Ukyo Sasahara	Team Mugen	41	29.400
15	51	Charles Milesi	Buzz Racing with B-Max	41	36.401
16	12	Tatiana Calderon	ThreeBond Drago CORSE	41	37.326
17	14	Kazuya Oshima	ROOKIE Racing	41	37.795
18	7	Yuichi Nakayama	carrozzeria Team KCMG	41	56.079
19	39	Sho Tsuboi	JMS P.mu/cerumo-INGING	11	30 Laps
20	4	Sacha Fenestraz	Kondo Racing	4	37 Laps
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