 @Following the previous day, Carlo Van dam got pole position, Keisuke Kunimoto was second position. Front low members in Round8 were same as in round7. However, Takuto Iguchi and Hironobu Yasuda placed the second line that replaced the order with Round7. Kei Cozzolino and Naoki Yamamoto lined up on the third line.
@The rain already stopped, but the track surface was still wet by rain of the night.
All machines wore the rain tire, Van dam, Iguchi, Yamamoto, Yuki Nakayama, Daisuke Nakajima select fresh tires, and other drivers select used tires. Cozzolino wore the slightest groove tires.
@The final race started at 10:30 a.m. All machines started, Nakayama contacted to Nakajima from his behind on the straight while view was shut out with water screen.
@Nakajima spun and went off the track, then hit to a concrete wall and finished a short race.
 @In the higher position, Van dam defended the top, Iguchi overtook to Kunimoto and became 2nd place. In addition, Cozzolino overtook to Yasuda and placed fourth,and Kunimoto who fought with Cozzolino for the third place at the 3rd corner came trough the track and back down to sixth place.
@The order of the first lap top 6 were Van dam, Iguchi, Cozzolino, Yasuda, Yamamoto, and Kunimoto. However, Iguchi lowered a position at the second lap, Cozzolino and Yasuda moved up second and third position. At the third lap, Iguchi was got ahead by Kunimoto.
@Van dam said "I expected that it rained more during the race" and chose fresh tires, but unfortunately, track surface was getting dry without rain, He was the top, but the pace did not improve. He was pushed by Cozzolino , Kunimoto, and Yasuda, who wearing used tire but defended the top to the death, however Cozzolino cut in his inside in the S-corner at the tenth lap ,therefore two of them contacted ,Van dam went off the track and dropped down to 4th position. And Cozzolino stood on the top.
@However, Cozzolino competed with Kunimoto on the home straight at the next lap.
He was preoccupied with this fight and took the wrong breaking point, then he come trough the track at 1st corner.
Kunimoto took the top temporarily, but went off the track. After returned to a course, he contacted with Iguchi who moved up at 3rd corner, and they finished the race for what contacted at 5th corner again.
 @It is Yasuda that got a seat of the top in lucky development. Yasuda protected for a large lead just succeeded in escaping and won the championship.
He told "At second half I chose to run with composure without to aim the fastest. I think that today's second victory was blessed with good development"
Second place was Van dam, and third place was Cozzolino who updated the fastest, however he was judged to have a dangerous act by competition with Kunimoto and received a penalty of the addition for 30 seconds.
Koki Saga was advanced to the third place hereby. For the end of the race he contacted with Naoki Yamamoto at the 16th lap for third place fight. What He returned to normal suspension with wet data by a test from evo-suspension was calling a good result of the third place.
 @In National class, Alexandre Imperatori succeeded in counterattack. He overtook to Hideki Yamauchi at the start, and koki Saga of a championship class entered between them luckily. While Saga blocked Yamauchi, he got a margin for one and half second. Yamauchi cut down the difference in a direct confrontation gradually, as for the next the water screen that was kicked up by Imperatori became the barrier to him.He developed a battle in less than comma several seconds continually, but was not able to reverse.
@Imperatori told "This race was not easy because Yamauchi put pressure on me frequently. But I think that it is a cause of victory to be able to drive without a mistake till the last" This is the second victory since Round3, and he moved up to 2nd place of the ranking. On the other hand, Masaki Matsushita and Hideto Yasuoka developed intense fight for third position, and Yasuoka stepped forward at the seventh lap and widened the margin after that. Matsushita could not put a pace up, and was overtaken by Zahir Ali, and then he got a checker in the fifth place after all.
Round7/8uMotegivResult |
