Kyojo Cup: Aimi Saito becomes new points leader with Kyojo Final win
- MARCO ALBERTINI
- 3 minutes ago
- 3 min read
In a chaotic second Kyojo Final of the season, 2024 series champion Aimi Saito came out victorious after a race-long battle with Ai Miura, to take her first win of the season ahead of Miki Onaga and Kokoro Sato, as well as the points lead.
In a brilliant display of maturity, Aimi Saito took her first win of the season and sixth of her career to move up to the points lead, while Miki Onaga and Kokoro Sato completed the podium, while championship contender Riona Tomishita crossed the line fifth after a lowly starting position.
As usual, the Sprint's results were used to make the grid for the Final, meaning sprint race winner Ai Miura started on pole, alongside Aimi Saito. At the start, AiWin owner-driver Miura got a good launch and maintained the lead, while Saito and Sato squabbled for second and four cars stalled at the back.
Saito then fully cleared Sato as they headed into the second sector, as Onaga was passed by Rio Shimono around the outside of Dunlop, as she fell to fifth. Two laps later however, Onaga found her way past the reigning Kyojo Cup champion with an impressive move around the outside of Turn 3.
Up ahead, a three-way battle for the lead began to brew on lap four between Miura, Saito and Sato. The Cerumo/Inging driver briefly moved up to second ahead of Saito at the Dunlop chicane, but the TOM'S driver found her way back past a lap later at Turn 1 and began pulling away from Sato.
Sato then began to struggle, as she was passed by Onaga on lap six and was forced to defend from Shimono, but was able to hold her off going down to Dunlop. The Impul by Dr.Dry driver was then attacked by Joanne Ciconte at that corner, and fell behind her in sixth as she headed up to Turn 13.
At the front, Miura kept defending from Saito, but on lap eight the TOM'S driver finally broke through Miura's defense to take the lead, as Onaga attempted to follow through, but was briefly sent into the air after hitting a sausage curb on the exit of the Dunlop chicane.
Behind them, championship contender Tomishita was on a roll after starting all the way down in 13th, passing Paige Raddatz for eighth on lap ten and began catching up to the front of the pack. Just ahead of her, Ciconte and Shimono collided at Turn 1, sending the latter into a spin and into the path of Rami Sasaki, who had nowhere to go and hit the rear-right suspension of the Impul by Dr.Dry car, putting both out of the race.
As a result, the race ended behind the safety car, with Saito taking her maiden win of the season ahead of Onaga, who took her first podium of the season, and Sato, who achieveed her third podium in four races. Ciconte and Tomishita completed the top five, ahead of a surprising Raddatz, who took her first points in Kyojo Cup ahead of Sara Matsui. Rounding out the top 10 were Kilei Kanemoto and Itsumo Shiraishi, who scored their first points of the season ahead of Mako Hirakawa and Rina Ito.
Despite crossing the line second on track, Miura was bumped down to 13th in the final results after incurring a five-second penalty for forcing another car off-track. Just behind her were Ryu Yamamoto, Kelsey Pinkowski, Sitarvee Limnantharak, with Marie Iwaoka and Zhao Yun Qing closing out the running order in 17th and 18th.
