Klaas van Snelheid bounced back from a disappointing race in Australia to win the Japanese V-Prix for the second year in a row, continuing his 100% record at the circuit. The Dutchman passed pole sitter Enrique Ruiz early on and led the majority of the race, impressively extending his final stint to avoid making a last minute pit stop. At the start the top four got away cleanly, with Adrien Simon passing Puccio Giodano at turn three after the Italian failed to make an overtake work on Nathaniel Powers. van Snelheid attempted to pass Ruiz on the outside of turn one at the start of lap two but the Brazilian held on, though the speed difference between the Dutchman on the super softs and Ruiz on the mediums was evident, and the inevitable happened the following lap. Ruiz, Powers and Simon had a battle on lap four at turn one that nearly ended in tears. Powers moved to the inside of Ruiz but as they reached the braking zone Simon hit the back of Powers, pushing his car into Ruiz. Amazingly there was no damage to any of their cars, and Powers successfully moved into second place, while Simon took third off Ruiz a lap later, as the Brazilian began to free fall through the field to ninth. Simon used his super soft advantage to relegate Powers back to third, while behind the drivers also on the red-striped tyres were making huge gains. This came at a cost however as the first round of pit-stops came on lap 16, with van Snelheid and Simon leading the super soft runners into the pits. Crucially, Simon had just caught up with the Downton, which turned out to be a disaster. As they entered the infamous pit-lane, Simon crashed into the back of van Snelheid as the latter turned into his pit box. The Dutchman luckily avoided any loss of time or damage, but Simon had his front wing wiped off and was forced to wait in the box as the team prepared a new one. As a result, all super soft runners looked on course for a four-stop race, with the final stop just three laps from the end. Powers briefly took the lead, but Kangur passed the British driver into turn one on the same lap to send him back to second. On lap 18, Judson Sikes and Sergio Álvarez made contact at turn one when the Russian exited the pits just in front of the Phoenix, with the Argentine driver hitting the back of the North Star. Sikes was spun ninety degrees while Alvarez lost minimal time, however he cost team mate Carson Davenport when the Portuguese driver was unable to avoid running into the stricken North Star. Up front, van Snelheid had started to make up ground, while James Vasquez lost his front wing after hitting an AMR, taking him out of contention for points. Powers pitted on lap 21 while the rest of the soft shod drivers pitted a lap later, leaving them on all on three stop strategies. These pit stops brought Franklin back into play as Ruiz moved up into the lead with team mate Olen Inman surprisingly only a few seconds behind in third, with van Snelheid splitting the pair. The Dutchman once again passed Ruiz for the lead but relinquished it when he kicked off the second round of pit stops for super soft runners on lap 32, while the drivers on mediums pitted a lap later, meaning they had just done enough to make the one-stop work. Championship leader Simon set about a charge and breezed past both Jean Mattson and Ruiz as he set fastest lap, leaving him 17 seconds behind van Snelheid with 29 laps to go, making the task of catching him unlikely but not impossible. Back at the sharp end of the grid, van Snelheid was beginning to close in on Kangur once more, but the Estonian was removed from his path when the soft runners began to make their second pit stops on lap 42. Kangur came out behind the two Franklins but utilised his fresh softs to pass them with ease, while behind Powers struggled to make much impression on the super-soft shod Kinnumen and began to lose time. Simon’s push to catch van Snelheid culminated in a spin at the second-to-last corner, losing him multiple places and all but ending his hopes of victory. On lap 48 came a moment that turned heads in the paddock, as Inman got a run on Ruiz down the pit straight and dived down the inside at turn one, taking third place from the stunned Brazilian. The following lap saw the pit window open for the super soft runners third stops, with van Snelheid feeding back out in the small gap that had opened between the two Franklins, though he soon dispatched Inman. The Dutchman began to chase after Kangur, while Powers relegated the two Franklin’s further. The race tipped in van Snelheid's favour when Alvarez was slow to respond to the blue flags for Kangur, bringing the gap between the leading pair down to just two seconds. Simon passed both Holmqvists to move into seventh, while further down the field with about ten laps to run, Sebastian Vocquelin spun at turn three and knocked off his rear wing, limping to the pits to become the first retiree of the race. On lap 60, van Snelheid inevitably passed Kangur for the lead down the inside of turn one and started to build a gap, while behind Simon pitted at the end of lap 62 for his fourth stop. Finn Schnyder crashed into Jules Simon just a few laps from the end, knocking off his front wing and the Meteor's rear wing – the American team suffering a double retirement – and the pair had a further collision in the pits to cap miserable days for both. A few drivers - most noticeably both Ocelots and Kinnumen - joined Simon in making an additional late stop, but incredibly the remainder stayed out, including the top three. At the front, Kangur began to reel van Snelheid back in with the gap down to a second by the final lap, but his slim hopes were ended when he was blocked by Yoshida. van Snelheid had a scare himself when the home hero unlapped himself at the final corner, but held on to claim his second win at Fuji in two years ahead of Kangur. Behind them Powers ran third but his badly worn softs lacked traction out of the final corner, and Inman used the power of his V12 Honda to steal the final podium position from the defending Champion by just 0.013 of a second. Pole sitter Ruiz came home fifth – and was beaten by his team mate who started thirteen places behind him on the grid - while Hoskins took a brilliant sixth ahead of a disappointed Simon in seventh, with Giodano, Kinnumen and Yoshida rounding out the top ten. 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