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After a race re-start, from the 2nd grid, #41 Stoffel Vandoorne (DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING) overtook #2 Yuji Kunimoto (P.MU/CERUMO · INGING), who had qualified in 2nd place for race 1.

This left Vandoorne in the lead. #7 Narain Karthikeyan (SUNOCO TEAM LEMANS) jumped up three spots from his 6th grid position start into 3rd place.

The 110 km sprint race continued with drivers in these positions, so Stoffel Vandoorne was able to capture his first victory in Super Formula. In the Driver's Championship rankings, Yuji Kunimoto (P.MU/CERUMO · INGING) is now in 1st place with 18.5 points, which is a 1.5 point lead over #20 Yuhi Sekiguchi (ITOCHU ENEX TEAM IMPUL).

Sekiguchi is followed by #1 Hiroaki Ishiura (P.MU/CERUMO · INGING), who has 16 points. Vandoorne is currently in 5th place in points.

Race Digest [VIDEO LIBRARY]

TOP 3 comments

Winner
#41 Stoffel Vandoorne (DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING)

It’s a great feeling to win my first Super Formula Race. Actually, this whole week has been great, from me after being announced as a Formula 1 driver with McLaren Honda for next year.

My first win in Super Formula is great. We’ve had a good pace the whole weekend, since practice, and the qualifying today. And we made some improvements on the car. So, yeah I’m very happy. I had a very good start, took the lead, and then tried to drive a clean race from there. The pace was good, I could increase the gap lap by lap. In the end, I am very happy to cross the finish line first.

2nd place
#2 Yuji Kunimoto (P.MU/CERUMO・INGING)

I am disappointed with my result in this race. (After #37 Kazuki Nakajima ((VANTELIN TEAM TOM’S)) was penalized and had to start in the last position) I thought I had a very good chance from the first position.

But unfortunately I couldn’t get my clutch to bite, which caused me to get off to a slow start. So Stoffel Vandoorne was able to jump into the top spot. After that, Vandoorne was able to widen up his lead on me.

I know what that stems from, so I will take care of that. I still need to find out what made me get off to a slow start and fix that. In regard to me jumping up into the top spot in the Driver’s Championship Points that really doesn’t matter. I am very vexed about what happened today, and want to make sure I am prepared tomorrow to possibly capture pole position and pick up a victory.

3rd place
#7 Narain Karthikeyan (SUNOCO TEAM LEMANS)

Congratulations first of all to Stoffel. For anyone to come to Japan and win in his first year obviously shows how talented he truly is. So congratulations to him!

Yeah, I made a good start. Then after that, Nojiri (#40 Tomoki Nojiri DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING) tried to pass me, and I held him off. Then I tried to defend, and then after that it was my own race, and I tried to just control the pace. The car ran good after that, so I tried to push it a little more, but the gap between me and Kunimoto got bigger, so I thought it was important for me to remain in 3rd place.