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 F Nippon Point standings: Matsuda is in the lead of the championship. Treluyer folows 5 point behind with,  Kogure in third and Quintarelli in fourth

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F.Nippon

Ronnie Quintarelli earns his first career victory

Under a clear sky from the morning, the race at Okayama Circuit was expected to be held in an excellent condition, but suddenly began to rain before the Japanese Formula 3 race, which was held prior to the Formula Nippon race. Due to this rain, the truck became semi-wet condition temporarily, but it began to recover during the mid stint of the Formula 3 race. And the weather was cleared as the start of Formula Nippon proceeded. However, there was no doubt that it could have started raining anytime during the race.

Under this condition, the formation lap started at 2:30 pm. After finishing it, the race began. It was Ronnie Quintarelli who made an excellent start, and headed for the first corner at the first place. Pole sitter, Takashi Kogure (PIAA NAKAJIMA), started late due to the wheel spin, but desperately maintained the second place. Benoit Treluyer (mobilecast IMPUL) and Tsugio Matsuda (mobilecast IMPUL) followed him. Loic Duval (PIAA NAKAJIMA), who started from the third grid, also failed at the start, and fell back to 6th place. After that, multi car crash occurred at the hairpin corner right after the back straight in the opening lap. Andre Lotterer (DHG TOM'S) was collided from the back, and while he was spinning aside, the later group approached him. Yuji Ide (ARTA), who was in the group and had no where to go, crashed into Lotterer, causing both drivers to retire from the race at this point. Also, Seiji Ara (DHG TOM'S) magnificently lost his position after involving in this collision. Because of this collision, safety car was put in. During this safety car run, Kogure, Yuji Tachikawa (RECKLESS CERUMO), Hiroki Yoshimoto (SG 5ZIGEN), Duval, Satoshi Motoyama (Arabian Oasis IMPUL), and Michael Krumm (Arabian Oasis IMPUL) successively made a pit stop. They made the strategy of refueling and changing tires during this safety car run.

After lap 4, the race was restarted. Due to Kogure’s pit stop, the positions of the race were Quintarelli, Treluyer, Matsuda, Naoki Yokomizo (INGING), J.P. de Oliveira (CARCHS KONDO), and Tatsuya Kataoka (Team LeMans) at this point. From this group, the top three cars slipped out, and especially, Quintarelli and Treluyer’s race for the first place was quite a battle. The third place Matsuda suffered the brake fade while approaching other machines, and struggled to pace up. Of the top 3, Treluyer was the first driver to make a pit stop. He made a brief pit stop on lap 44 when the top group was about to catch up with lap-down cars, and came back to the course quickly. At the next lap, Quintarelli and Matusda made a pit stop. Quintarelli successfully came back to the course before overtaken by Treluyer, but Matsuda slightly wasn’t able enough to come back to the course in time before Treluyer, therefore, no positions were changed. Okayama circuit is a course that is difficult for the drivers to overtake, therefore, Treluyer and Matsuda occasionally approached Quintarelli, but they were not fast enough to overtake him. As a result, Quintarelli celebrated his first career victory. Treluyer finished second, and Matsuda was third, followed by Oliveira, Kogure, Tachikawa, Ara, and Krumm, who overtook teammate Motoyama, and earned the final drivers point.

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