Sho Tsuboi wrapped up the Super Formula title with second place in Sunday’s final race of the season at Suzuka, as Kakunoshin Ota completed a dominant double victory.
After finishing second in Saturday’s opener and picking up another bonus point in qualifying on Sunday morning, TOM’S driver Tsuboi went into the final race needing only a single point to put the championship out of reach of his sole remaining rival Tadasuke Makino.
As Ota overtook poleman Tomoki Nojiri to put himself in an early lead, Tsuboi was in no mood to play the percentages as he passed Nojiri around the outside into Turn 1 to grab second place as early as the second lap of 31.
Although Dandelion Racing driver Ota had pulled out a five-second advantage by the time the pit window opened on lap 10, it looked as if the undercut could allow Tsuboi back into the fight for the win as he came in for his mandatory stop on lap 11.
A searing outlap meant that Tsuboi was right on Ota’s tail by the time the leader was halfway around his outlap, after having pitted one lap later, but Ota hung on to the lead before pulling away once more.
Ota went on to score his third career win and his second of the weekend by a margin of 5.4 seconds, helping Dandelion cement the teams’ title ahead of Team Mugen in the process.
Tsuboi meanwhile became the fifth different driver for TOM’S to win the Super Formula title, joining Kazuki Nakajima, Andre Lotterer, Nick Cassidy and last year’s champion Ritomo Miyata on the flagship Toyota squad’s roll of honour.
The 29-year-old heads into next month’s SUPER GT finale at Suzuka with a chance of becoming only the sixth driver in history to win both of Japan’s top two championships in the same year.
Kakunoshin Ohta, DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING
Photo by: Masahide Kamio
Makino on the other endured a nightmare day as he qualified down in 10th and could only manage eighth in the race, being passed by Ayumu Iwasa for seventh on the final lap.
With Nojiri finishing fourth behind Nirei Fukuzumi (KCMG), who passed the Mugen man at the end of the second lap at the chicane, it meant Makino lost out in the battle for runner-up in the championship to Nojiri by a single point.
Ren Sato completed the top five for Nakajima Racing ahead of his team-mate Naoki Yamamoto, who bowed out of Super Formula with a sixth-place finish.
Red Bull junior Iwasa completed a disappointing season in seventh after qualifying down in 11th place, losing out to Ota for fourth in the final standings.
Kenta Yamashita (Kondo Racing) and Kamui Kobayashi (KCMG) completed the points scorers in ninth and 10th places.
Ukyo Sasahara looked like he might be in a position to score his first points of the year for TOM’S as he held up Makino for the first part of the race, but a dramatic loss of pace after his pit stop meant he ended up down in 14th place at the finish.
Unlike Saturday’s race, the finale was a tame affair in terms of on-track incidents, with Hiroki Otsu the only driver to suffer a significant delay in his TGM Grand Prix car as he was wheeled into the garage before rejoining, finishing six laps down.
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