#15 Pierre Gasly won the first victory!
#15 Pierre Gasly
The final of the Super Formula round 4 “Twin Ring Motegi 2 & 4 Race” was held on August 20th (Sunday). Although it had been raining a while just before, the final race took place on dry conditions. In this race it’s obliged to replace tires with 2 different spec tires. The tire strategy was different for each team, for example, the top 3 machines selected “Soft tires” and next 3 machines selected “Medium tires”.
Just after the start
#18 Kamui Kobayashi entered to the first corner at the top with a wonderful start from 2nd on the grid and runout form with the overtake button. #4 Kenta Yamashita who started the pole position sank to 3rd place. The machine that started with “Soft tires” changed to medium tires from 10 to 15 laps, but #18 Kamui Kobayashi continued running with soft tires until 34 laps.
He pitted the following a 37 seconds gap, but he took time to replace the right rear tire and lost 30 seconds and dropped to second place when he returned to the track. #15 Pierre Gasly was the top instead of #2 Hiroaki Ishiura who pitted on lap 41. #15 Pierre Gasly further expanded the difference with #18 Kamui Kobayashi and received the checkered flag at the top. He decorated his first win in Super Formula.
#15 Pierre Gasly
#18 Kamui Kobayashi got second place and got his first podium this season. The possibility of the first victory was high in the third year of participating in the Super Formula, but it was a disappointing race for him. Felix Rosenquist was in third place. He won the podium successively from the third round.
Hiroshima Ishiura was in fourth place. He lost Q1 yesterday and started from 17th on the grid, but approached the championship with excellent chase. #3 Nick Cassidy was in fifth place, #4 Kenta Yamashita in 6th place and KONDO RACING won both prizes. # 36 Andre Lotterer in seventh place, #40 Tomonori Nojiri in eighth place.
# 36 Andre Lotterer dropped out in Q2 but it caught up. He hit #41 Takuya Izawa’s machine on lap 41 and it was a pity that he got the drive-through penalty. #41 Izawa’s machine broke the left rear wheel and retired.
#18 Kamui Kobayashi