Giuliano Alesi wins prematurely ended race at Autopolis

At the end of a race prematurely interrupted due to the more than complicated weather above the Autopolis circuit, Giuliano Alesi (Team Tom's – Toyota) scored the first victory of his career in Super Formula this Sunday.

Author of pole position in the deluge yesterday, then of an excellent start this morning, the Frenchman mastered his subject throughout the 14 laps out of the 42 on the program, until the definitive interruption of the event .

The first lap was marked by the collision at the first corner between Sho Tsuboi (P.mu cerumo / Inging – Toyota) and Ryo Hirakawa (Team Impul – Toyota), eliminating both drivers as well as Yuji Kunimoto (KCMG – Toyota), while Giuliano Alesi at this moment takes in his wake Yuhi Sekiguchi (Team Impul – Toyota) and Nobuharu Matsushita (B-Max Racing – Honda), moved up from 13th to 3rd place.

The safety car logically intervenes to evacuate the immobilized cars, before the restart at the start of the 5th lap, when Sekiguchi makes a mistake in the penultimate corner leaving Alesi leading in front of Matsushita and Hiroki Otsu (Team Mugen – Honda).

On this wet track, the daring maneuvers paid off, Tomoki Nojiri (Team Mugen) notably gaining three places by going around the outside of the first turn facing a group fighting for points, before continuing his ride placing him in the top 5 after 10 rounds.

A comeback stopped by the new appearance of the safety car after Kazuto Kotaka (KCMG) went off the track. The race management, however, displayed the red flag, the conditions worsening at Autopolis, between the rain and the lack of visibility. The event will not be restarted, the limit of the effective two hours of racing is approaching, without the weather situation improving.

Alesi won in the end ahead of Matsushita and Sena Sakaguchi (P.mu cerumo / Inging). This is the first success for the son of the former pilot Ferrari and Benetton from Catalonia in the GP3 Series in 2018. The top 5 is completed by Ritomo Miyata (Team Tom's) and Tomoki Nojiri. Half of the points should be awarded on this round.

Discover the full report of the Autopolis Super Formula event, in issue 2312 of AUTOhebdo, available from tomorrow evening in digital version and from this Wednesday on newsstands.