Alesi succeeds through the fog and rain
Giuliano Alesi sensationally scored a first Super Formula victory on only his second start in the Japanese series in a weather-shortened Autopolis race. The son of ex-formula 1 racer Jean, standing in for Kazuki Nakajima at TOM’S, commanded the contest and was declared the winner after just 13 laps of 42 had been completed.
Alesi set up his improbable triumph on Saturday by scoring pole in a wet session that was interrupted by no fewer than four red flags. He edged out TOM’S Toyota team-mate Ritomo Miyata by a little under 0.1 seconds.
There was doubt whether the race would go ahead at all as Autopolis was enveloped in thick fog on Sunday morning, but this lifted in time for the bout to start around 40 minutes behind schedule, albeit on a soaking track.
Alesi nailed his getaway, survived an early safety-car restart, and was then never seriously challenged until events were stopped due to heavy rain. An attempt to restart the race was abandoned as more fog arrived, before a result was declared and half-points awarded. It meant Alesi matched the feat of the driver he was replacing – Nakajima also won on his second start in what was then known as Formula Nippon back in 2011 at Autopolis.
Nobuharu Matsushita (B-max) shot up the order from 13th on the grid to third on the opening lap, and then benefited from a mistake by Yuhi Sekiguchi, just as the race was about to restart after the safety car, to move into second. But a 5s penalty for a start infringement meant Matsushita slipped a place in the final classification behind impressive
Inging rookie Sena Sakaguchi.
Mugen’s Tomoki Nojiri extended his points lead by finishing fifth behind Miyata, with most of his closest rivals in the championship failing to score. Nojiri leads the standings from Ryo Hirakawa by 25 points with four rounds remaining.