JUNE 8, 2004

Lotterer wins in Japan

Former Jaguar Racing test driver Andre Lotterer won the third round of the Formula Nippon championship at Motegi last weekend in his PIAA Nakajima Racing entry and now leads the series, despite the fact that the weekend was dominated by Richard Lyons in his DoCoMo Dandelion car.

Former Jaguar Racing test driver Andre Lotterer won the third round of the Formula Nippon championship at Motegi last weekend in his PIAA Nakajima Racing entry and now leads the series, despite the fact that the weekend was dominated by Richard Lyons in his DoCoMo Dandelion car. Lyons was fastest in all the practice sessions and took pole position for the race but the event itself was disruped by rain and Lyons went off while struggling with an ill-handling car. Satoshi Motoyama (Team 5Zigen) led with Juichi Wakisaka (Team LeMans) in second and Yuji Ide (Team Impul) third ahead. Ide moved up to second after eight laps and France's Benoit Treluyer (Team Impul) moved to third as Wakisaka struggled. The tracked then started to dry and Lotterer emerged in the lead after the pit stops with Team le Mans's Tatsuya Kataoka second and Ide third. Motoyama was fourth. Lotterer built up a dominant lead but a late race Safety Car lost him his advantage and at the restart Ide was able to get ahead of Kataoka, who spent the last laps fighting off the attentions of Treluyer and Motoyama. Lyons set the fastest lap but finished eighth.

Lotterer leads the series with 19 points while Ide has 12. Lyons is equal third with 10 points.