All Japan F3 Championship Rounds 1 and 2 Race Report: Nissan's Takaboshi takes victory in opening round

MIE PREFECTURE, Japan – Rounds 1 and 2 of the All Japan F3 Championship were held at Suzuka Circuit on April 18 and 19, and the Nissan Driver Development Program's (NDDP) #23 Mitsunori Takaboshi brought home victory in the opening round. Along with this, Lucas Ordoñez, making his F3 debut, managed to achieve consecutive top order finishes.

This season, Mitsunori Takaboshi, who came third in the series last year, is being joined by Lucas Ordoñez, making is single-seater formula debut after also stepping up to the GT500 this year. In the qualification sessions held under clear weather, Takaboshi secured third on the grid for both rounds 1 and 2, while Ordoñez grabbed a sixth position start for round 1 and then bettered his own best time by 0.5 second to secure fourth on the grid for round 2.

The race for round 1 began at 3:28 p.m. local time on Saturday. Although Takaboshi was passed by one car at the start of the race, he remained hot on its heels, and at the chicane corner on lap 2 he managed to retake third place. In the early stages of the race a four-car battle for third unfolded between Takaboshi, pursuing rivals, as well as teammate Ordoñez. From lap 3, however, Takaboshi lifted his pace and began to pull away from the group. With a significant margin between him and the two machines in the lead, Takaboshi stated: "It was a race where I couldn't quite catch up to the leaders and I felt like I was just focusing on not making any errors."

As the race reached its close, the two lead vehicles made contact, causing one of them to crash and lifting Takaboshi to second where he passed the checkered flag. However, after the race finished, the top car was penalized and this lifted him up to race victor. As for Ordoñez, despite struggling with the balance of his car, he managed to protect his position and complete the race in fourth.

Rain fell from early morning on the following day on Sunday, creating a wet road surface. Although the weather eventually improved and various other race categories were held before the F3 final race somewhat drying the course, various wet spots remained and this created some very difficult racing conditions. Despite this, Takaboshi managed to make a superb start from third place to put him in second going into the first corner.

After the previous day's disappointment of being far behind the leaders, this time Takaboshi was not only keeping up, but gradually closing the gap and was within 1 second of the lead car by the middle of the race. Although he was ultimately unable to overtake the top machine and finished in second, he ended both rounds with 17 drivers' points and is now sitting at the top of the rankings.

Ordoñez, starting from fourth on the grid, showed even better form than on the previous day and strongly protected his position while steadily ticking off laps. Although the balance of the car altered around the middle of the race causing him to finish in fifth, he managed to take home points in both of his first rounds competing in a formula event.

DRIVER QUOTES

Mitsunori Takaboshi (Round 1 1st / Round 2 2nd)
"In qualification there was quite a large margin between me and the leaders, so I felt that I was pretty fortunate to secure third. In the first round, I spent a large deal of time running alone in that position. However, for round 2, I talked things over with the team, altered the car's settings and was able to really make a go at the lead. As I was able to run really close behind the top car, I had a good opportunity for assessing my own car's fast and slow aspects, and I plan to take these lessons into the next round. There is still a bit of a gap between myself and the other competitors, but I've managed to take a large number of points in these opening rounds so I can be happy with that."

Lucas Ordoñez (Round 1 4th / Round 2 5th)
"In the first round, even if I attacked the corners at a furious pace, I found myself falling behind on the straights and found it very difficult to find any overtaking chances. We managed to fix a number of the issues for round 2, and at first the pace was pretty good. In round 1, I a made a small mistake at the start which caused me to fall down the order, but in round 2 I managed to maintain my starting position so I think the car was better. I think there is still a lot of points I need to work on for Motegi, but I managed to take points in both rounds of my formula machine debut so I think this was a really positive start. This weekend I learned a lot, such as how the tires change when they start to wear down. I'm going to take what I have learned into the next race and aim for a higher finish."

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