The penultimate race of the season took place at Twin Ring Motegi on Sunday with Yuji Ide taking his first ever victory in his Team Impul Lola B3/51.
Starting from 3rd position behind pole sitter Juichi Wakisaka (Team Le Mans) and fellow front row starter Richard Lyons in the Dandelion run Lola, Ide made a brilliant start to lead in to the first corner. Making it a perfect start for Kazuyoshi Hoshino led Impul team , Frenchman Benoit Treluyer also blasted through to follow his team mate in to turn 1.
TRELUYER AND WAKISAKA COME TO GRIEF
Whilst Ide set about opening up a healthy advantage over his team mate, Wakisaka made a bid for second place on lap 7 but tagged Treluyer in the process and eliminated both from the contest.
There was action aplenty on lap 9 as the now second placed Lola of Richard Lyons became the first driver to make his compulsory pit stop. As he did so championship leader Andre Lotterer was given the black flag for making a jump-start and was forced to endure a drive through penalty before making his scheduled stop.
With his Bridgestone tyres still in good shape, race leader Ide pitted on lap 21 and had pulled out a sufficient gap as to re-take the lead as he re-joined the race. Lyons, despite having been held up by veteran Hideki Noda (CARROZZERIA MOHN Lola) was still in second place with Lotterer incredibly right with him after setting a succession of fastest laps.
LYONS FENDS OFF LOTTERER ON THE FINAL LAP
Despite frenzied efforts to get by, Lyons expertly defended his position and crossed the line just three tenths of a second ahead as the chequered flag was waved.
An emotional Ide celebrated his first win in Formula Nippon as he dominated proceedings to put himself in the title hunt as the season prepares for its finale at Suzuka on the 7th November. Lotterer still leads but only by 4 points ahead of Lyons who in turn leads Ide by 3.
RACE RESULTS
Pos. - DRIVER - TEAM - LAP - TOTAL - BEST1 YUJI IDE mobilecast IMPUL 55 1:32'35.978 1'39.3422 RICHARD LYONS DoCoMo DANDELION 55 1:32'43.220 1'39.6863 ANDRE LOTTERER PIAA NAKAJIMA 55 1:32'43.512 1'38.9284 TATSUYA KATAOKA LeMans Spirit 55 1:32'54.855 1'39.3395 SATOSHI MOTOYAMA ADiRECT 5ZIGEN 55 1:33'01.837 1'39.4306 TSUGIO MATSUDA COSMO OIL CERUMO 55 1:33'13.525 1'40.3917 YUJI TACHIKAWA Yellow Hat KONDO 55 1:33'34.632 1'40.1928 KOJI YAMANISHI CARROZZERIA MOHN 55 1:33'36.086 1'39.6929 TAKASHI KOGURE PIAA NAKAJIMA 55 1:33'37.920 1'40.24910 RYO MICHIGAMI Yellow Hat KONDO 55 1:33'40.893 1'40.66711 HIDEKI NODA CARROZZERIA MOHN 53 1:30'15.171 1'40.828- MASAMI KAGEYAMA COSMO OIL CERUMO 42 1:13'42.074 1'41.590- NAOKI HATTORI DoCoMo DANDELION 32 54'45.730 1'40.418- TOSHIHIRO KANEISHI ADiRECT 5ZIGEN 18 30'57.279 1'40.720- BENOIT TRELUYER mobilecast IMPUL 6 10'07.619 1'39.911- JUICHI WAKISAKA LeMans 6 10'07.744 1'39.972- TAKESHI TSUCHIYA LeMans 0
FASTEST LAP: No.31 ANDRE LOTTERER 1'38.928(30/55) 174.72km/h
