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F-Nippon / Super GT News
Duval and Ara win at Motegi
11/08/2008
Round six of the Formula Nippon Championship got underway on Sunday 10 August at the Twin Ring Motegi, Japan in front of 15,000 cheering fans. This was the second race of the series to utilise the reverse grid qualifying system. Race 1 was dominated by Loic Duval, whilst Seiji Ara made the most of the new for 2008 system to claim his maiden win.
Takashi Kogure started the weekend well with a fast pace in both the Friday free practice and qualifying. The PIAA Nakajima Racing team driver looked set for pole position but lost out in Q3 to a late effort by Tsugio Matsuda, who took his sixth consecutive pole of the season. Kogure finished second with Duval taking third.
Matsuda made a good start when the race kicked off, though Kogure was not as lucky as he stalled on the line. Four laps into the race and the safety car was deployed after Kohei Hirate crashed into the right rear tyre of Takuya Izawa, retiring both vehicles from the race. The race was restarted on lap 20, with Duval eventually taking the lead from Matsuda on lap 25 giving the French driver his second win of the season.
The reverse grid system saw Takeshi Tsuchiya start race 2 from pole position, though the DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing driver stalled his engine, allowing Seiji Ara, who started from second on the grid, to take the lead. Ara dominated the race and had built an eight second gap to second placed Matsuda by lap 16. Ara claimed his first Formula Nippon victory, and was followed over the finishing line by Matsuda in second and Oliveira in third.
Current standings see Matsuda leading the championship with 73 points, whilst Duval and Andre Lotterer are tied in second place with 44 points.
Race 1 winner, Loic Duval, said:
"Matsuda was quick in qualifying but my car performed very well over the weekend so I was really looking forward to the race. I was close on Matsuda’s tail for the majority of the race and I eventually took over with 10 laps to go. I would like to say thank you to the tyres, they were perfect”
Race 2 winner, Seiji Ara, said:
“I managed to take the lead from the start. I wanted to keep my pace and then I could create a gap to the rest of the field. I struggled with over steer towards the end of the race but that was a problem with my car. I feel very happy for winning.”
Yasuo Teranishi, Bridgestone tyre senior technical advisor, said:
“On Friday it was extremely hot at the circuit and the track was over 50 degrees. I expected that weekend would be hard on the tyres but from Saturday the air was cooler and the track temperature lowered. The conditions were good for our tyre performance. It was a good battle between Matsuda and Duval and we congratulate Ara on his maiden win.”
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