Tsuzuki fights back to claim Race 1 win | Ferrari Challenge Japan Suzuka
The Ferrari Challenge Japan season got off to an exciting start this weekend, hosting its opening race at Suzuka, alongside the main Formula 1 event.
SUZUKA, Japan — The opening race of the 2026 Ferrari Challenge Japan series got off to a fast start, with Akihiro Tsuzuki taking the first win of the season in Race 1 at Suzuka. Yamatatsu put up a strong fight throughout the contest, but his efforts were only good enough for second-place this weekend, with Yasutaka Shirasaki getting the final spot on the podium after an impressive battle with Motohiko Isozaki.
Ferrari Challenge Japan Suzuka Race 1 Results
- 1st: Akihiro Tsuzuki
- 2nd: Yamatatsu
- 3rd: Yasutaka Shirasaki
- 4th: Kentaro
- 5th: Falcon
- 6th: Phil Kim
- 7th: Cold Max
- 8th: Yu Liang Chen
- 9th: Kenbow
- 10th: Koji Yamamoto
- 11th: Katsuya Hirata
- 12th: Alex Fox
- 13th: J
- 14th: Tak Shaw
- 15th: Kento Inami
- 16th: Yi Hang Tan
- 17th: Lawrence Lau
- 18th: Tetsuo Matsumoto
- 19th: Michito Hirota
- 20th: Yoshifumi Komatsu
- 21st: Leong Hing Loong
- 22nd: Bamboo Maeda
- 23th: Yasuhito Fukui
- 24th: Michael NG
- 25th: Satoru Kako
- 26th: Asuki Ozaki
- 27th: Hirotaka Nishida
- 28th: John Leo
- 29th: Motohiko Isozaki
- 30th: Kid
As It Happened: Suzuka Race 1
Yamatatsu quickly took the lead heading into the first corner, with Akihiro Tsuzuki having to settle in behind him during the opening stages of the race despite starting on pole. After 10 minutes of running, Yamatatsu was still leading the race, however, Tsuzuki was now just 0.1 seconds away from the leader and looked much faster when comparing race pace between the two drivers. A little further down the field, Motohiko Isozaki was also having to defend, with Yasutaka Shirasaki and Kentaro breathing down his neck for fourth place. However, after posturing a few times, Tsuzuki finally took the lead, getting past Yamatatsu with a super clean move at the Spoon Bend, regaining his qualifying position after a poor start at Suzuka. But this battling had allowed Kotani back into contention for the lead, with the driver falling behind early in the race but finding his feet with 15 minutes left in the contest. The gap was down to just 1.5 seconds between the top three cars, and it looked like this would be the battle all the way to the checkered flag. However, a big obstacle for this battle was traffic, with lapped cars causing havoc for the leaders. Kotani paid the biggest price for this, losing over three seconds behind a backmarker and then losing control of his car shortly after, perhaps pushing too hard to regain his lost time!
However, this meant that the battle for fourth-place was now the battle for the final step on the podium, with Isozaki still leading Shirasaki, and now defending a podium position. But this pressure finally got to Isozaki, with Shirasaki’s pace forcing a mistake under braking, leading to Isozaki spinning into the gravel and losing his podium finish. But as the drivers entered the final lap of the race, Tsuzuki was well ahead of Yamatatsu and never looked in danger of losing his race win after a thrilling start to the contest. While I would have preferred a more exciting finish, the correct driver won the race today.
Driver of the Race: Yasutaka Shirasaki
Although Yasutaka Shirasaki didn’t win Race 1 at Suzuka, I believe he had the best battle during the contest with Motohiko Isozaki and Kentaro. This battle was made more exciting at the latter stages of the race when being promoted into a podium position, however, Shirasaki earned his third-place finish with consistent pace and hard racing. Which is why Yasutaka Shirasaki is the first TIFOSI7 driver of the race in the 2026 Ferrari Challenge Japan season.
