Team KCMG was unable to show its pace during a soaked Super Formula weekend at Autopolis, where extreme weather conditions heavily interrupted running.
Intense rain and dense fog plagued the Autopolis weekend, prompting four red flag periods during qualifying as drivers succumbed to the conditions and went off the track. As a result, Team KCMG’s Yuji Kunimoto and Kazuto Kotaka could only manage 14th and 15th respectively on the grid.
The weather persisted for the race, with the lack of grip causing several cars to go off at the first corner. Unfortunately, attempting to avoid the opening lap melee, Kunimoto’s car became beached in the gravel trap and his race ended early. Kotaka also met the gravel later in the race as conditions worsened, and retired.
Just 12 of the scheduled 42 laps would be complete before a red flag was brought out and the decision to ultimately cancel the rest of the race was called.
The team will utilise the five-week break to analyse the weekend and make improvements before the next round at Sportsland SUGO on 19-20 June.
#7 KAZUTO KOTAKA
“This was a very difficult weekend as it rained throughout and the conditions were constantly evolving. In qualifying we were very unfortunate. I was on a strong lap when one of the red flags came out, so we didn’t really get a chance to show our true pace. I managed to navigate the start well and gain a place but there was just no grip from beginning to end and I eventually spun and retired. Of course, it’s not the way we hoped this weekend would go, but we will now focus on the next race at Sportsland SUGO.”
#18 YUJI KUNIMOTO
“The constant rain and unstable weather made this a very challenging weekend. My race was over pretty quickly as a lot of cars went off at the start and I had to go into the gravel to avoid them and I got stuck. We have a few weeks before the next race so we will use that time to make sure we are as prepared as we can be to bring home a good result.”
TSUGIO MATSUDA TEAM MANAGER
“This was our first wet running of the year, so we struggled a little bit to find the right set-up. We managed to improve the car for qualifying where we had some decent speed, but the session was heavily interrupted with four red flags meaning we couldn’t string a lap together. The conditions on Sunday were extreme and the race ended up being called early with half-points awarded, unfortunately by then both of our drivers had retired. We plan to use the time between now and the next race to look into what went wrong for us this weekend and how we can improve for the rest of the season.”
For more information about KCMG please visit www.kcmg.com.hk. To keep track of all the latest updates, please like KCMG’s Facebook page or follow on Twitter and Instagram.
Who is KCMG?
KC Motorgroup Ltd (KCMG) is an international motorsport services group established in 2007 by Paul Ip. The group, with its headquarters located in Hong Kong, has operations reaching across the Asia Pacific region. KCMG operates closely with many partner companies and racing organisations around the world to provide unrivalled motorsport services, equipment, team management and quality distribution in the automotive industry. For more information on all of the team’s activities please visit www.kcmg.com.hk or email info@kcmg.com.hk.
