Ryo Shirasaki won both Champion class races as the FIA-F4 Japanese Championship visited Mobility Resort Motegi for Rounds 13 and 14. Across a dry, sunny weekend, Ryo Sakai secured pole position for both races and set new course records in qualifying and Race 13, while Yutaka Toriba led the Independent class with pole position and victory.
The Champion class featured 28 entries, with Sakai setting the pace in Friday's qualifying sessions. He opened with a 1:56.749, breaking the previous course record of 1:57.305, set by Ritomo Miyata in 2016. Shirasaki qualified second, 0.167 seconds behind, with Kazuma Kurosawa third.
Sakai repeated the result in the second session, which determined the Race 14 grid. His 1:56.948 lap put him 0.017 seconds ahead of Shirasaki and 0.021 seconds clear of Kurosawa.
Shirasaki converted his front-row start into victory in Saturday's Race 13. Yuta Suzuki took second, 1.074 seconds behind, while Haruto Nakai completed the podium in third. The race featured two safety car periods and finished behind the safety car.
Sakai set the fastest lap with a 1:55.859 on Lap 6, faster than his own qualifying record. However, a five-second penalty for a jump start dropped him to 14th in the classification.
Shirasaki completed the double on Sunday, winning Race 14. He also set the fastest lap, a 1:55.178 on Lap 8, establishing another course record. Nakai finished second, 2.046 seconds behind, while Sakai recovered to third, 3.942 seconds from the winner. An early safety car period preceded the restart, while six cars failed to reach the finish, including five that did not complete the first lap.
In the Independent class, which had 19 entries, Toriba took pole position with a 1:58.217 lap. KENTARO qualified second, 0.067 seconds behind, followed by Makio Saito in third.
Toriba converted class pole into victory in Race 13. KENTARO followed 0.831 seconds behind, with Saito third, 5.302 seconds from the winner. KENTARO set the class's fastest lap with a 1:57.338 on Lap 8.
The Motegi weekend saw the course record fall three times, with Sakai setting the pace in qualifying and Race 13 before Shirasaki set a new course record in Race 14. Shirasaki left with two Champion class victories, while Toriba completed a pole-to-win result in the Independent class.
With the final round completed, Ryo Shirasaki took the championship with 244 points, a staggering 121 points ahead of Masana Muto and Ryo Sakai. Though tied on points with Sakai, Muto finished as vice-champion based on the number of second-place finishes throughout the season.
In the Independent class, Hirobon clinched the championship on 201 points, despite not participating in the Autopolis and Motegi rounds.
