Kyojo Cup: Rio Shimono dominates season-opening Fuji sprint
- MARCO ALBERTINI
- May 10
- 3 min read
Dr. Dry with Impul's Rio Shimono started off the 2025 Kyojo Cup season with a pole position and a dominant win in the sprint race ahead of Miki Onaga and Mako Hirakawa.
On a Saturday headlined by rain, Rio Shimono came out on top in both qualifying and the sprint race to take the points lead heading into the KYOJO Final tomorrow.
Shimono's weekend had started well, having led two of the three practice sessions on Friday as the track was wet throughout the early parts of the weekend. Track conditions only got worse for qualifying on Saturday morning, as more rain fell onto the track, lowering visibility and making lap times slower.
Despite the low visbility, Shimono led the early stages of qualifying as Kokoro Sato, Miki Onaga and Hana Burton all were a constant presence in the top five positions in the first half of the session.
Out of the latter three, only Burton was able to challenge Shimono, posting the fastest time mid-session despite a spin. However, with a handful of minutes left, Shimono edged out Burton at the top of the timing sheets and remained in that position as the session finished.
Behind the Dr. Dry with Impul driver, Burton missed out on pole by 20 milliseconds, while Miki Onaga was third, over half a second from the TOM'S driver. Rounding off the top five were Rookie Racing's Mako Hirakawa and Cerumo/INGING's Kokoro Sato, who was just four milliseconds ahead of Kilei Kanemoto. Behind the sole Mihara Racing car, Itsumo Shiraishi qualified 7th, ahead of Ayumu Nagai, Rami Sasaki and Sitarvee Limnantharak.
Track conditions improved in time for the race, which was held five hours later, but started under the safety car on a still damp track.
After two laps under the safety car, the race finally started with Shimono pulling away from Burton, who lost second after being overtaken by Miki Onaga at the first corner and fell to fifth position by the end of the lap.
Behind them, Ayumu Nagai overtook Itsumo Shiraishi for seventh, while Hana Burton successfully kept Kilei Kanemoto at bay trying to defend fifth place. Cameras soon turned to Ryu Yamamoto, who spun in turn one, but was able to get the car restarted and rejoined the race shortly after.
On lap six, Burton lost the stability of her car while braking for Turn 3 and fell to eighth, while Kilei Kanemoto was overtaken by both Ayumu Nagai and Itsumo Shiraishi and was sent back to seventh a lap later.
With two laps to go, Maaya Orido collided with Yuika Hosokawa at the first corner, breaking the latter's rear right suspension and putting her out of the race on the spot, while the latter continued on but losing a lap in the process. On the same lap, but at the final corner, Itsumo Shiraishi spun out of sixth place and fell out of the points, as Hana Burton climbed up to sixth and Kilei Kanemoto fell back to eighth.
Despite yellow flags being shown in turn one, the race was ended without a safety car and it was Rio Shimono who opened up the season - and a new era for the championship - with a win, 9.638 seconds ahead of Miki Onaga and 12.152 ahead of Mako Hirakawa, who rounded out the podium.
Kokoro Sato finished fourth ahead of Ayumu Nagai, who was three seconds ahead of Hana Burton in sixth. Rami Sasaki finished seventh as Kilei Kanemoto rounded out the points positions in eighth. Riona Tomishita finished slightly outside the point scoring positions in ninth, just ahead of TGM Grand Prix's Miku Ikejima.
Outside of the top 10 was Marie Iwaoka in 11th, followed by Itsumo Shiraishi, Sitarvee Limnantharak, Aimi Saito and Emily Zhao, who was given a five-second penalty for a starting procedure infringement. Behind the Chinese driver was Kelsey Pinkowski, followed by Reina Amaya and Ryu Yamamoto in 18th as the last car to cross the line.
The Kyojo Final will be held on Sunday, at 12:15 local time.
