Motegi Super Formula: Sekiguchi takes first win, Lotterer second

Starting on pole, Sekiguchi maintained his lead throughout to take a lights-to-flag win over Audi WEC driver Lotterer by a comfortable margin of 6.127s.

While the Team Impul driver was unchallenged, Lotterer had defending champion Ishiura on his heels all through the race.

The German got a perfect start from fourth to move to second, with Ishiura losing a spot to third. The Japanese tried to re-take the place in the pit stops, but the German's blistering out lap meant he managed to keep second.

Ishiura fought back, but it was not enough, as he finished 0.581s behind Lotterer. Behind, Yuji Kunimoto finished a lonely fourth.

The battle for fifth spiced up just past halfway stage, when James Rossiter lost his place in pits to McLaren reserve Stoffel Vandoorne.

But the fight was far from over as the British driver came back in the next couple of laps to take fifth place back from Vandoorne, after Rossiter dived inside of Vandoorne in the corner.

Vandoorne then was unable to fight back, finishing 3.765s behind, as Toyota WEC driver Kazuki Nakajima ended up seventh, making up four places in the race.

Naoki Yamamoto claimed the final point in eighth, the Team Mugen recovering after dropping to last at the start of the race.

Kamui Kobayashi was ninth, while Daisuke Nakajima completed the top 10, the latter surviving an engine stop during his pit stop.

Among those to retire were Fuji winner Joao Paulo de Oliveira, who retired on Lap 9 with a steering wheel issue, and Narain Karthikeyan, who suffered brake problems on Lap 35.

Race results:

Pos	Driver	Team/Engine	Laps	Time/Gap
1	Yuhi Sekiguchi	Team Impul Toyota	52
2	Andre Lotterer	Tom's Toyota	52	6.127
3	Hiroaki Ishiura	Inging Toyota	52	6.708
4	Yuji Kunimoto	Inging Toyota	52	21.326
5	James Rossiter	Kondo Toyota	52	31.996
6	Stoffel Vandoorne	Docomo Dandelion Honda	52	35.761
7	Kazuki Nakajima	Tom's Toyota	52	36.334
8	Naoki Yamamoto	Team Mugen Honda	52	44.197
9	Kamui Kobayashi	Team Lemans Toyota	52	44.593
10	Daisuke Nakajima	Nakajima Honda	52	1'06.775
11	Takashi Kogure	Draho Corse Honda	52	1'15.520
12	Koudai Tsukakoshi	Real Honda	52	1'16.424
13	William Buller	Kondo Toyota	52	1'21.666
14	Takuya Izawa	REAL Honda	52	1'23.026
15	Yuichi Nakayama	KCMG Toyota	51	1Lap
Ret	Bertrand Baguette	Nakajima Honda	35	17Laps
Ret	Narain Karthikeyan	Team Lemans Toyota	33	19Laps
Ret	Joao Paulo de Oliveira	Team Impul Toyota	7	45Laps
Ret	Tomoki Nojiri	Docomo Dandelion Honda	4	48Laps