Motegi Super Formula: Gasly snatches maiden win from Kobayashi

Kobayashi sprinted to the lead at the start of the race, with Tomoki Nojiri demoting polesitter Kenta Yamashita to the third spot. Meanwhile, Gasly stood firm in fourth.

The pitstop window opened on lap 10, with Yamashita the first of the runners to dive in for fresh tyres. Half of the field followed suit, while several frontrunners, including Kobayashi and Gasly, stayed out.

When the Frenchman finally pitted on lap 27, he was able to jump both Yamashita and Nojiri to move up to second place.

Kobayashi pitted seven laps later with a healthy advantage in hand, but a problem in changing the right-rear tyre cost him nearly half-a-minute and the lead of the race.

The Japanese driver rejoined the track 15 seconds behind Gasly, who went on to take his maiden Super Formula victory.

It was also Honda’s first SF win since Stoffel Vandoorne’s triumph at last year’s season finale in Suzuka.

Felix Rosenqvist, who was also one of the late stoppers, crossed the finishing line in third place to score back-to-back podiums.

The Swede managed to fend of championship leader Hiroaki Ishiura, who charged through the field after switching to the soft tyres right towards the end of the race

Former European F3 race winner Nick Cassidy and Yamashita came home fifth and sixth, while Porsche WEC ace Andre Lotterer recovered from a drive through penalty to finish seventh.

The German was involved in an incident with Takuya Izawa in which the Dandelion Racing driver was forced to retire with suspension damage.

Nojiri claimed the final championship point in eighth, while Koudai Tsukakoshi and Kazuya Oshima completed the top 10.

Race results:

Pos.	Driver	Team/Engine	Gap
1	Pierre Gasly	MUGEN/Honda	-
2	Kamui Kobayashi	KCMG/Toyota	18.583
3	Felix Rosenqvist	Team LeMans/Toyota	19.507
4	Hiroaki Ishiura	Inging/Toyota	20.195
5	Nick Cassidy	Kondo/Toyota	26.089
6	Kenta Yamashita	Kondo/Toyota	39.339
7	Andre Lotterer	TOM'S/Toyota	40.898
8	Tomoki Nojiri	Dandelion/Honda	47.104
9	Koudai Tsukakoshi	Real Racing/Honda	49.690
10	Kazuya Oshima	Team LeMans/Toyota	57.342
11	Kazuki Nakajima	TOM'S/Toyota	1'02.439
12	Daisuke Nakajima	Nakajima/Honda	1'09.515
13	Naoki Yamamoto	Mugen/Honda	1'11.322
14	Jann Mardenborough	Impul/Toyota	1'16.868
15	Yuji Kunimoto	Inging/Toyota	1'17.410
16	Yuhi Sekiguchi	Impul/Toyota	1'18.764
17	Takashi Kogure	B-Max Racing/Honda	1'34.662
Ret	Narain Karthikeyan	Nakajima/Honda	-
Ret	Takuya Izawa	Dandelion/Honda	-