After battling with Downton's Maxwell for pole position, it's Maserati's Cesar who will lead the pack today for the first triple crown race of the season. The 121 lap race around Motegi takes place under some cloud cover and fairly cool temperatures - evident from the fact 18 of the 32 runners have gone for an aggressive battery mode. However a couple have opted for a balanced strategy, Maxwell and Vocquelin in particular but also both Arrow cars, both OSMs, Klien, Alaniz and Ledesma. And very much going against the grain are Yoshida, Agostino, both Thunderheads and al Shabbab, taking an efficient approach. An initial good getaway for Maxwell meant he and Cesar went through turn 1 and 2 side by side, but the Brazilian held the inside line and kept the lead. He worked on extending his lead as Maxwell fell behind Ellington on lap 4 and Berkgvist on lap 9. Van Snelheid and Yoshida also dropped back, the latter at an alarming rate, 11th by lap 15. Thunder took advantage of this to move up to 5th early on while Zozulya also was quick to advance to 6th, catching McLaughlin by surprise on lap 13 after the New Zealander himself had made up places. Despite being on a balanced strategy, Vocquelin was able to keep pace with those around him, holding 8th behind McLaughlin. Zvironas dispatched of van Snelheid and Yoshida simultaneously to take 9th ahead of the Dutchman, while other major gainers included Taylor - advancing 4 places in the first 15 laps - and Einarsson - making up 5. There was already a retirement as Domenicalli's battery expired on lap 3.
Maxwell continued to drop back, losing out to Thunder, Zozulya and McLaughlin. The Downton looked to pass Thunder at turn 3 but got pinched and had to back out, allowing McLaughlin through before he slipstreamed past Thunder on the back straight. Vocquelin nearly clipped a barrier and had to back out at turn 2 on lap 22, dropping him behind Zvironas and van Snelheid, before Taylor passed him a lap later. However, the race was neutralised on lap 24 when Ostberg, running 16th, stopped at the side of the road after his suspension collapsed. Due to the awkward positioning of the car, the safety car was brought out and it coincided with both the agressive and balanced drivers' first pitstops. With the safety car out until lap 30, it was the efficient drivers who led - Yoshida, Agostino, Garcia and Bruner, with al Shabbab a probably life best 5th. Cesar, Ellington and Bergkvist were the highest to have stopped, ahead of McLaughlin, Thunder and Zozulya. Maxwell and Zvironas followed, while a slow pit stop dropped van Snelheid behind Taylor and Vocquelin. At the restart, the top 5 began to fall back quickly as they were easily overtaken by the drivers who had pitted. Al-Ghazzawy and Alaniz both spun off in synchronisation on lap 32 and the safety car came back out initially, but was back in on 34 when the pair were ultimately able to continue running. Cesar was up to 3rd by that point and made light work of Agostino, while his teammate put up little resistance. Bergkvist had a scare when he tried to past the battling Thunderheads, and had to back out, allowing McLaughlin past. Maxwell was also struggling, as quick overtakes from Zvironas and Taylor left him vulnerable to Vocquelin. Pit stops for the efficient runners on lap 40 saw Cesar, Ellington and McLaughlin promoted back into the top 3, while things were going poorly for van Snelheid as he made a couple of small errors, dropping him down to 17th by lap 45, while an impressive move on the outside of turn 1 on Vocquelin had seen Einarsson move into the top 10. By lap 48, the aggressive drivers were back into the pits. Cesar, Ellington and McLaughlin remained in the top 3, though Bergkvist came out between Maxwell and Vocquelin, while Thunder and Zozulya were split by Yoshida and Agostino. It didn't take long for Zozulya, along with Zvironas to pass the pair, while Taylor also made up more ground over the next few laps as he overtook van Snelheid, then Agostino. Up front, McLaughlin closed in on Ellington and after a couple of laps, he grabbed the inside line at turn 1 to take 2nd on lap 57 - while Zhao's anonymous race ended when he tagged the barrier and broke a wheel. 3 laps later, the balanced runners were in again, as Maxwell and Vocquelin dropped to 14th and 15th. At the halfway point, Cesar led from McLaughlin, Ellington, Bergkvist, Thunder, Zozulya, Zvironas, Yoshida, Taylor, Agostino, Hutchinson, Einarsson and Hudson, followed by Maxwell and Vocquelin. Taylor was passed Yoshida by lap 63, while despite just stopping, Maxwell and Vocquelin found themselves being passed by Kasami quite easily. The pair then proceeded to have their own fight, as the Frenchman fought past his rival with a brave move at turn 3. The race was once again neutralised not long latter when Zozulya - frustratingly unable to live with Thunder's pace - crashed into the barriers at turn 2 on lap 69. The safety car was out and similarly to Zozulya, it had a massive impact. The aggressive runners had to pit on lap 72, and now Cesar found himself 14th, along with McLaughlin, Ellington, Bergkvist, Thunder and Taylor - double stacking at Fusion meant Zvironas dropped behind Taylor. The front saw a mix of balanced and efficient runners, with Yoshida again leading from Agostino, Vocquelin, Maxwell, Bruner, van Snelheid and Klien. After leading for so long, Cesar now had to push to pass majority of the pack, as the safety car came in on lap 74. Yoshida left Agostino behind on the restart, with the Italian swamped by Vocquelin and Maxwell. Ledesma and Stokey had a brief battle that saw the OSM win out, before the efficient runners pitted for the last time on lap 80. By this point, Cesar had passed Alaniz and al-Shabbab, looking to line up Ledesma, with Ellington right on his tail after he slipped past McLaughlin on lap 77. Yoshida had emerged behind McLaughlin, while Agostino split Thunder and Taylor. Cesar continued to move upwards but Ellington got caught behind Matthews and McLaughlin saw his opportunity to get back ahead. Bergkvist also was blocked by Alaniz, which saw Thunder pull ahead of him. The balanced drivers had their final stop on lap 90 and Vocquelin emerged still in 6th - with those ahead of him needing another stop, he was looking like a contender for victory. Maxwell came out only 11th, just ahead of van Snelheid, the pair still behind Yoshida on track. With no more out of position cars in the way, Bergkvist was quick to pay back Thunder with a move on lap 92, while Taylor and Zvironas had an entertaining battle which ended with the Jaguar holding his place. 96 saw the final pit stops as the aggressive drivers pitted - Vocquelin was back up into the lead, ahead of Yoshida. Cesar followed, along with Maxwell, Klien and van Snelheid after the Highwind driver moved past the Arrow. McLaughlin and Ellington beat Agostino out, who was ahead of Bergkvist and Thunder. Further back Garcia was out on lap 107 after clipping the wall. Down at Maserati Yoshida didn't make things difficult for Cesar but Vocquelin defended like a lion, and while Cesar struggled to pass him, his rivals McLaughlin and Ellington stormed back into contention as they closed in with 16 laps to go. Bergkvist, Thunder and Taylor had joined the party as well as Yoshida slipped back quite quickly, while Maxwell, Klien and van Snelheid weren't able to do much better. Vocquelin had tried his best but on lap 111, Cesar sling-shot his way around the outside of turn 1 and 2 to grab the lead with 2 hands and pull away. McLaughlin required a couple more attempts but was through with 5 laps left - but Ellington struggled even more and Vocquelin's defence paid off for Porsche when Bergkvist pulled off an opportunistic move to take 4th off Ellington, before passing his teammate on the last lap for 3rd. Taylor also made a very late move on Thunder, while further down, Ledesma crashed on lap 119 as he was held up by Agostino, which would end up costing Lamborghini a point as the Italian dropped back in the end. But at the front, a close to perfect weekend for Cesar saw him take a fantastic victory, ahead of McLaughlin who whipped up a late fastest lap as he took 2nd, and the championship lead. Bergkvist's street smart driving rewarded him with Porsche's first podium of the year, beating Vocquelin and Ellington - the trio were split by just 4 tenths over the line. A fine recovery from Taylor saw him beat Thunder by only 2 tenths, while Zvironas passed Maxwell and Klien late on to make it a great day for Fusion. Maxwell's 9th ended a disappointed day for Downton, while Klien's 10th gave Highwind their first double points finish of the year. Van Snelheid picked up 5 points for 11th, Yoshida was hugely disappointed with 12th, Hudson picked up some late moves to finish 13th, Einarsson recovered from an awful qualifying for 14th and Hutchinson rounded out the points.
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