Formula NIPPON official website

Qualifying

Hot pole battle between Lotterer and Oliveira

No.1 Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira

The qualifying for Formula Nippon races is the same 3-stage knock-out format as F1. This time, round three was held as a one-day Sunday race with the qualifying run in morning and the race in the afternoon. Despite the early morning start of the qualifying, the track surface temperature had already risen to 40 degrees C. in the Japanese mid-summer heat. That meant the machines' tires would only be at peak grip for a short time, thus leading the teams to bet everything on a single time-attack lap.
In the final qualifying session (Q3), last year's champion, Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira (TEAM IMPUL) in car No. 1 recorded a 1'25.263 lap to take the lead. Next up was the was Andre Lotterer (PETRONAS TEAM TOM'S) in car No. 36, fresh off his overall win at the Le Mans 24 hour race in France. Lotterer ran exactly the same time as Oliveira with a 1'25.263 lap. The pole position went to Oliveira in accordance with the regulation that gives preference to the car that runs the time first in the case of a tie. That didn't change the fact, however, that the two were evenly matched. Qualifying 3rd came Kazuki Nakajima (PETRONAS TEAM TOM'S) in car No. 37, while Kohei Hirate (TEAM IMPUL) in car No. 2 took 4th position to complete a sweep of the top four by the TOM'S and IMPUL teams. That said, the competition was very close, with only 0.7 seconds separated the eight cars that ran in Q3.

No.36 Andre Lotterer
No.37 Kazuki Nakajima

No.36 Andre Lotterer / No.1 J.P.L.de Oliveira / No.37 Kazuki Nakajima

Race

Pit work mistake takes Oliveira out of competition

No.1 J.P.L.de Oliveira At the start of the race it was Joao Paulo Lima de Oliveira (TEAM IMPUL) in car No. 1 who led into the first turn. Andre Lotterer (PETRONAS TEAM TOM'S) in car No. 36 followed in second position, while the 3rd-place qualifier, Kazuki Nakajima lost speed due to a poor clutch meet and fell back to 6th position. Moving up to 3rd position was Kohei Hirate (TEAM IMPUL) in car No. 2. Behind him came Koudai Tsukakoshi (DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING) No. 41 and Naoki Yamamoto (TEAM MUGEN) No. 16.
Changes in the order began quickly after the end of the opening lap. With his machine's superior speed and the aid of his overtake system, Lotterer was able to pass Oliveira on the main straight to take an early lead. Meanwhile, Takashi Kogure (NAKAJIMA RACING) in car No. 32, Hiroaki Ishiura (Team KYGNUS SUNOCO) in car No. 8 and Alexandre Imperatori (SGC by KCMG) in car No. 18 made early pit stops for a first tire change. Then Andrea Caldarelli (KONDO RACING) in car No. 3 made his pit stop o change tires at the end of lap two. On the fourth lap Kazuki Nakajima made his pit stop as well. After changing tires, Kazuki Nakajima ran strongly and quickly reset the record for fastest lap in the race. Seeing this, Oliveira also opted for an early pit stop and tire change on lap eight while running in 2nd position. But, an unexpected happening awaited Oliveira in the pit. After the tires were changed, Oliveira waited until he saw the front-end jack come down and then engaged his clutch. However, at that point the rear was still up on its jack and his rear tire spun. The team quickly got Oliveira to brake and then rechecked to make sure the tire nuts were fastened. In all, the pit work took 18.5 seconds as a result and cost Oliveira precious places by the time he returned to the track.

TOM'S vs. IMPUL duel continues through second half

No.2 Kohei Hirate At this point in the race, the battle for the lead was between Lotterer and Hirate and the gap between them fluctuated at around one second. Of the two it was Hirate who returned to the pit first for the first of his pit stops. The tire change took 10.4 seconds before Hirate returned to the track. Seeing this, Lotterer made his pit stop on the next lap. His team's pit work was finished in 9.7 seconds, about a second faster than Hirate's. This put Lotterer effectively in the lead when he returned to the track. After this, two leaders continued to run lap after lap with only a narrow margin separating them, but Hirate was unable to catch Lotterer, who had more speed on the straights.
Meanwhile, the same thing was happening in the battle for 3rd. Oliveira had driven hard to recover ground after losing ground due to the mistake in the pit Kazuki Nakajima, who had taken and held 3rd position thanks to his early tire change. But, due to the superior speed of Nakajima's machine on straights, Oliveira was unable to pass him.
As the race entered the second half the machines began to make their second pit stop. Among the first was Kazuki Nakajima, returning to the pit after lap 24. This time the team not only changed tires but also refueled, taking 14.7 seconds to complete the pit work and return to the track.

No.37 Kazuki Nakajima Seeing Nakajima's move, Oliveira made his pit stop after lap 25. Here again, there was a change of the rear tires as well as refueling, but the pit work took about one second more than PETRONAS TEAM TOM'S had. So, Oliveira was unable to return to the race in front of Kazuki Nakajima. Then, after the following lap 26, the race leader Lotterer made his pit stop. His team also changed the rear tires and refueled, and it took the exact same 14.7 seconds as it had for Kazuki Nakajima to complete the work and return to the race. Following Lotterer's lead, Hirate also made his pit stop. His TEAM IMPUL crew completed the work and got him back to the track in a fast 14.1 seconds, but that wasn't quite fast enough to get him in front of Lotterer when he rejoined the race.
From this point, about 15 laps remained in the race, and the two close duels continued between Lotterer and Hirate and Kazuki Nakajima vs. Oliveira. But, as in the first half, the faster straight speed of the two PETRONAS TEAM TOM'S machines kept them out of reach of the two TEAM IMPUL machines until the end of the 44-lap race. As if making up for his absence in the previous round at Autopolis, Lotterer secured his second win of the season. With his victory in the opening round at Suzuka, this gives Lotterer an impressive two-for-two win record in the series this year. And for TOM'S, Nakajima's win at Autopolis and Lotterer's wins at Suzuka and here at Fuji gives the team a perfect season start with three consecutive wins.

Hirate's 2nd-place finish gave him his first podium of the season. The 3rd-place finish for Kazuki Nakajima put him on the podium for the third straight race, including his top-rung showing in the last race, which keeps him atop the point ranking as well. Following from 4th place down in this race were Tsukakoshi, Ishiura and Kogure, while the rookie Daisuke Nakajima (NAKAJIMA RACING) in car No.31 finished 8th to claim his first points in Formula NIPPON competition.

2nd: No.2 Kohei Hirate / Winner: No.36 Andre Lotterer / 3rd: No.37 Kazuki Nakajima, Nobuhide Tachi (Team Manager)

Round3 Fuji Race Digest [YouTube]

Winner comment

The team did a fabulous job for me today

No.36 Andre Lotterer (PETRONAS TEAM TOM'S)
The start of today's race, as everyone saw, was a very normal one. I thought of passing JP [De Oliveira] right away but I couldn't get past him, so I told myself to just stick with him. But then I got the chance to pass him on the straight and took it. After that I just pushed hard. I knew that JP and Kohei [Hirate] were chasing me but the car was performing so well and I decided to just keep pushing as much as I could to try to build my margin over them.
The pit strategy this time also went very well. The work during the pit stop was excellent with no wasted time at all. It was fantastic! Throughout the race week our car's time just didn't improve in sector 3 of the course, so I concentrated on making up as much time as I could in sectors 1 and 2. Later on, Kohei was right behind me for a long time and I thought the race would get more intense in the latter stages, but it turned out to be easier than I expected and I was able to run a good race. Still, it was tough because it was so hot out there.