Rio Shimono scores maiden F4 podium at Motegi

Rio Shimono claimed her first podium in single-seaters in the opening round of the F110 Cup at Motegi, in a weekend where she also secured an overall podium in the Minute Endurance Championship. Reigning Kyojo Cup champion Aimi Saito scored points on her maiden single-seater outing in a chaotic weekend.

Photo credits: kakophotography

Following two standalone rounds last year, the F110 Cup hosted the first round of its 2025 season at Motegi, as part of the Motegi Champion Cup Race support package, which included the Minute Endurance Championship, Super FJ and two one-make Honda championships.

Rio Shimono performed double duty as she drove in both the MEC and in the F110 Cup, both of which for Dr.Dry Racing Team, whilst Aimi Saito joined Rn-sports for the latter.

Shimono is no stranger to the Dome F110 chassis, having driven it in her first two seasons in Japanese F4 where she had a best finish of seventh in the 2023 season opener, whilst Saito made her single-seater debut to gain race experience as she aims to defend her Kyojo Cup title this year as the series will switch to Formula 4 cars.

Photo credits: F110 Cup

RACE 1

The first of two races of the weekend was held in cold and damp conditions, with Shimono starting in third on wet tyres, while Saito starting 15th after a difficult qualifying session.

As the race started with a rolling start due to the conditions, Shimono immediately took advantage of a slow start from Keito Matsui to get up to second place on the first lap.

At the end of the opening lap, the safety car was called out on track as Matsui spun his car at turn five and retired on the spot.

With the safety car coming in a few laps later, the racing resumed and so did Shimono's charge as she overtook Reon Ochiai around the outside of turn three to take the lead of the race as the First Garage driver began to fall down the order.

Shimono began to build up a gap to the cars behind in the next couple of laps, but as the track dried up, she was overtaken by Yoshimasa Kano, who was on dry tyres, in the esses on the last lap and had to settle for second, ahead of Ryo Sakai.

Saito meanwhile, earned experience in difficult conditions by taking 15th-place on her debut in single-seaters.

Photo credits: kakophotography

RACE 2

Race two was held on dry conditions on Sunday, with Shimono lining up seventh on the grid, whilst Saito started 16th.

As the race started and pole-sitter Shota Sakai was overtaken by Yoshimasa Kano for the lead, Shimono overtook Keito Matsui to get up into sixth position, which she would defend successfully in the early stages as Aimi Saito gained three positions at the start to move up to 13th.

Ahead of them, Reon Ochiai overtook Kano for the lead, but the Akiland Racing driver was able to stay close to Ochiai as they led a five-car train composed by Yuta Suzuki, Shota Sakai and Haruto Nakai.

In the closing stages, it all came to blows for the leading group as heading into turn five, Yuta Suzuki attempted to make a move on Reon Ochiai, who had lost the lead to Kano, swerved right to go on the inside of Ochiai, but caused Shota Sakai to take avoiding action and collide with Haruto Nakai, which sent Sakai spinning out of control on the inside of the track, nearly hitting Kano and coming to a stop into the gravel trap.

As Sakai retired, Ochiai was able to retake the lead as Kano had a trip through the gravel and fell through the pack, losing out to Shimono in the closing stages as she moved up to fifth.

In the end, Ochiai won ahead of Haruto Nakai who held off Yuta Suzuki despite having a broken front wing, while behind them Shimono was overtaken by Ryo Sakai and Kazuma Kurosawa to cross the line in seventh place, while Saito finished 12th.

Following the race, both Yuta Suzuki and Yoshimasa Kano were handed 30 and 10 second penalties, which promoted Keito Matsui to third, Rio Shimono to sixth and Aimi Saito to tenth, scoring her first point in single-seaters in her second race.

It was a successful weekend for Shimono, who comes home from Motegi with third place in the F110 Cup standings and with an overall podium in the Minute Endurance Championship, where she drove with Ayumu Nagai and Anna Inotsume on their way to a third-place finish; for Aimi Saito it was a positive end to a learning weekend where she kept herself out of trouble and gained valuable experience in single-seaters ahead of her Kyojo Cup campaign.