Juichi Wakisaka took his first Formula Nippon race of the year at Mine over the weekend despite finishing 2nd on the track to Team Impul driver Benoit Treluyer.

When Treluyer was adjudged to have caused Richard Lyons’ Dandelion Lola B3/51 to spin off the track in the closing stages of the race, Wakisaka benefited from the Ulsterman’s protest and celebrated his first win of the year along with his Le Mans team.

In an eventful race, Wakisaka, who started 5th on the grid, battled hard in the leading group and made early headway to emerge from his pit stop in 4th position. With just 3 laps to go Wakisaka overtook Toshihiro Kaneishi (5ZIGEN Lola) to move in to a podium position but benefited from Lyons and Treluyer’s altercation at the hairpin on the penultimate lap. The contact spun Lyons’ car in to the gravel and retirement but Treluyer emerged unscathed to take the chequered flag in 1st place. However it was short lived after the appeal and he was docked 1 minute meaning that he would finish in a lowly 7th and out of the points.

On a miserable day for Team Impul, Treluyer’s team mate Yuji Ide was also docked a minute by the stewards after he was adjudged to have caused an avoidable accident when he pitched former Impul driver and reigning champion Satoshi Motoyama in to the gravel trap, dropping him from a podium position to 5th place at the finish.

Inheriting 2nd place was Keneishi with Tatsuya Kataoka claiming his best ever finish with 3rd in his Le Mans Spirit Lola.

Team Nakajima drivers Andre Lotterer and Takashi Kogure incurred the wrath of ex Lotus and Tyrrell driver Satoru Nakajima when they collided on the very first lap.