Hattori wins Formula Nippon opener

In wet and rainy conditions, the 34-year-old held off former Jordan F1 test driver Juichi Wakisaka(ARTA Reynard-Mugen) by just 0.7s in his 5Zigen-run Reynard-Mugen. Seija Ara (Cerumo Reynard-Mugen) was third, a further 16sec behind.

Britain's Ralph Firman enjoyed better fortunes in the race than he did in qualifying, rising from 12th on the grid to finish fifth in his first outing for ex-Lotus GP driver Satoru Nakajima's team. Another to carve his way through the pack was Narain Karthikeyan, the Indian managing to grab a point in sixth after a troubled qualifying session, which included a crash, meant he started 18th.

Ulster's Richard Lyons finished eighth on his Formula Nippon debut, the former Palmer Audi racer stepping into Firman's shoes at the G-Force-equipped Team Morinaga Nova outfit.


1 Naoki Hattori (5Zigen Reynard-Mugen) 1hr15m59.230s
2 Juichi Wakisaka (ARTA Reynard-Mugen) 1hr15m59.935s
3 Seiji Ara (Cerumo Reynard-Mugen) 1hr16m15.799s
4 Masami Kageyama (Cerumo Reynard-Mugen) 1hr16m24.041s
5 Ralph Firman (Nakajima Reynard-Mugen) 1hr16m41.176s
6 Narain Karthikeyan (Impul Reynard-Mugen) 1hr17m01.643s
7 Katsumoto Kaneishi (Olympic Kondo Reynard-Mugen) 1hr17m08.561s
8 Richard Lyons (Team Morinaga Nova G-Force-Mugen) 1hr17m25.087s
9 Yudai Igarashi (LeMans Reynard-Mugen) 1hr17m39.186s
10 Takeshi Tsuchiya (ARTA Reynard-Mugen) 1hr17m47.421s
11 Alex Yoong (LeMans Reynard-Mugen) 1hr16m14.437s
12 Masahiko Kageyama (Takagi B-1 Reynard-Mugen) 1hr16m42.024s
13 Yuji Tachikawa (Olympic Kondo Reynard-Mugen) 1hr17m20.389s
14 Jaroslaw Wierczuk (DoCoMo Dandelion Reynard-Mugen) 1hr17m46.220s
15 Tetsuji Tamanaka (Takagi B-1 Reynard-Mugen) + 1 lap