Kyojo Cup: Rio Shimono wins as Saito crashes

Impul with Dr Dry's Rio Shimono won the third KYOJO Sprint of the season after capitalizing on Aimi Saito's costly spin with six laps to go in damp conditions. Mako Hirakawa scored her second podium of the season by finishing second, as Riona Tomishita crossed the line in third to take her first podium of the season.

Ph: Kyojo Cup

In the third round of the Kyojo Cup season, Rio Shimono went from third to first in the Sprint to take her third win of the season, allowing her to take the points lead as Aimi Saito crashed from the lead and Miki Onaga was given a 30-second penalty for an illegal start, pushing her back to 16th.

Despite the series disabling the hybrid on every car on the grid ahead of this round for a more equal playing field, it didn't affect Saito, who took her second consecutive pole position on Saturday morning ahead of Itsumo Shiraishi, who edged out Shimono to complete the front row.

Saito held the lead at the start as Shimono quickly overtook Shiraishi for second around the outside of Turn 1, all while Ryu Yamamoto briefly stopped her car after the Hairpin and Hana Burton went off course at Dunlop, but regardless of both instances, the race remained green.

As the field crossed the line to begin lap two, Mako Hirakawa went alongside Rami Sasaki on the main straight before taking fifth from her despite a lock-up under braking. Behind them, Onaga had made her way up to seventh after starting last as she hadn't set a time throughout the session.

While Onaga was climbing the order, rain began to hit the track, which caught out race leader Saito, who spun and hit the wall on the exit of the final corner, but was able to continue. Behind her, Kilei Kanemoto and Maaya Orido also spun but were able to continue without damage to their cars as the race was red flagged.

Following a lengthy red flag and two more laps behind the safety car, the race got back underway as Shimono lead, while Tomishita quickly took second from Shiraishi, who then fell to fourth after she was overtaken by Hirakawa at Dunlop.

With two laps to go, Hirakawa overtook Tomishita for second, while Onaga overtook Kokoro Sato for sixth around the outside of 100R and moved up to fifth on the following lap after overtaking Sasaki at the first corner.

Up ahead, Shimono remained unchallenged from the restart to take her third win of the season ahead of Hirakawa and Tomishita, while Shiraishi and Sasaki rounded out the top five as Onaga was given a 30-second penalty for an illegal start and dropped to 16th. Ikejima and Kanemoto rounded out the points-paying positions in seventh and eighth, ahead of debutant Flame Airikkala in ninth and Sitarvee Limnantharak in 10th.

Yuika Hosokawa took her best result of the season in 11th, ahead of Burton in 12th and Marie Iwaoka who held off Kelsey Pinkowski and Orido for 13th. Behind Onaga in 16th, Ayumu Nagai and Zhao Yunqing were also given 30-second penalties for the same reason and were classified in 17th and 18th, respectively. Last round's Kyojo Sprint winner Saito will start tomorrow's Final on the final row of the grid alongside Yamamoto after her mid-race spin.