OKAYAMA, Japan – Mitsunori Takaboshi took his third Japanese Formula 3 victory of the year at Okayama as championship leader Jann Mardenborough held onto the points lead despite a troubled weekend.
With Katsumasa Chiyo still recovering from his recent Super GT accident, Takaboshi was back aboard the No.23 B-Max Formula 3 entry at Okayama.
After a recent impressive debut in the GT500 class in Super GT, Takaboshi was equally as impressive in Formula 3 on the weekend, finishing second in Saturday's race and backing that up with a lights-to-flag victory on Sunday after starting on pole. He also recorded the fastest lap of the race to earn additional points.
GT Academy ace Mardenborough remains in the championship lead despite finishing fourth and eighth in the two races at Okayama.
He qualified fifth for Saturday's race and gained a spot for fourth at the finish. He finished right on the tail of the third place finisher to just miss out on a podium result.
The Sunday race however, was more of a battle. A technical issue in qualifying left him last on the grid. The British driver began an early charge and was up to eighth by lap four. Tire wear was his back-of-the-grid charge hindered his progress as he crossed the line in eighth.
"Initially I was only scheduled to take part in the first two events of this season as an extra entry, but for various reasons I was able to race again in the F3," said Takaboshi. "I wasn't able to grab a good result at the last weekend at Motegi, so I really wanted to make up for that here and really went all out with my pre-race preparation. Â One of my goals was to show that I had the pace in qualification, and in the end I was able to take pole position and grab the win in the final race so I'm pretty happy."
With three rounds remaining at the final weekend at Sugo on September 24-25, Mardenborough holds an eight point lead in the championship.
"The results from this weekend were a little disappointing," said Mardenborough. "The condition of the car in the races wasn't bad, so it really all came down to the fact that qualifying didn't go well. For both races I concentrated really hard on pulling out good starts and was able to jump up a few positions, but throughout the race the balance of the car would start to fall away and it became a case of pulling in close to my rivals only to have them pull away again. The next weekend is the last of the F3 season, so I really want to do my best to close out this year with a good performance."
Tough weekend for @Jannthaman but he still leads the points in #F3jp. @TAKAX32 took a win 🏁 https://t.co/idHwOpwN1C pic.twitter.com/sUVduJMdVV
— Nissan NISMO (@NISMO) September 12, 2016
NISMO Calendar
September 17-18
FIA WEC, Circuit of The Americas, USA
Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup, Nurburgring, Germany
Australian Supercars, Sandown 500, Melbourne, Australia
Pirelli World Challenge, Sonoma Raceway, USA
September 24-25
European Le Mans Series, Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
Nissan Micra Cup, Mont Tremblant, Quebec, Canada
Japanese Formula 3, Sugo, Japan
October 1-2
Blancpain GT Series Sprint Car, Barcelona, Spain
October 8-9
Super GT, Chang International Circuit, Thailand
Australian Supercars, Bathurst 1000, Mount Panorama, NSW, Australia
Pirelli World Challenge, Laguna Seca, Monterey, California, USA
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