Team KCMG narrowly missed out on points at the fifth Super Formula round of the 2021 season at Twin Ring Motegi, with Yuji Kunimoto finishing the race 11th.
Although 2016 Super Formula champion Kunimoto and Kazuto Kotaka struggled in qualifying, both drivers showed strong pace to recover on race day.
Having started 15th, Kunimoto made up two positions after avoiding an incident on the opening lap. He made use of a good strategy to improve his position to 11th, but with overtaking difficult on the 4.8-kilometre circuit, he couldn’t break into the top 10, missing out on points by less than two seconds.
Kotaka was unable to avoid the incidents on Lap 1, losing his front wing and having to return to the pits for repairs. A safety car allowed the 22-year-old to catch up with the pack and from there he showed good speed and consistency to pass other cars on his way to finishing 14th.
Kamui Kobayashi will return to the team in place of Kotaka for the penultimate round of the 2021 season, also at Twin Ring Motegi on 16-17 October.
#18 YUJI KUNIMOTO
“Qualifying was disappointing, I expected better from myself so to miss out on Q2 by less than a tenth of a second is tough to take. We had some issues with the balance of the car but we managed to sort most of the problems with some set-up changes. I had a clean first lap, moving up two places. The team had a strong strategy and we further improved our position in the pit stop phase. Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to overtake at Twin Ring Motegi and qualifying has a huge impact on the result, meaning I was unable to score points. The next round is again at Twin Ring Motegi so the team and I will work on improving the car before we return in October.”
#7 KAZUTO KOTAKA
“I felt good in practice and I thought I could have another good session, so I was disappointed not to reach Q2 by such a small margin. At the start of the race I made a mistake and briefly went into anti-stall, which dropped me to the back. I then picked up damage on the first lap and had to pit for a new front wing, but after that the car was really quick and I was able to recover some positions. It’s a shame I couldn’t score points this weekend as I feel the potential was there. Thanks to the team for their continued belief and support in me.”
RYUJI DOI KCMG HEAD OF MOTORSPORT
“It’s disappointing to leave Twin Ring Motegi without scoring points, but there are positives we can take from the event. Qualifying was frustrating, both Yuji and Kazuto narrowly missing out on Q2 made race day harder than it could have been. Track position is incredibly important at Twin Ring Motegi, so it was a shame Kazuto made a mistake at the start and dropped further back. Despite this, both cars had very strong pace, similar to that of the leaders, so we had potential for a good result with a better qualifying performance. We will learn from this weekend before we return to Twin Ring Motegi in October, when Kamui will return to the team. It will be great to have him back with us and hopefully we will have a strong end to the season. Thanks to Kazuto for his efforts this year, he has made big steps since he first joined up with the team and we hope to see him soon.”
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.
