Team KCMG rounded off the 2022 Super Formula campaign with a point in Sunday’s race at the Suzuka Circuit, thanks to an impressive drive from Kamui Kobayashi.
Both Kobayashi and teammate Yuji Kunimoto showed solid pace in Friday’s Free Practice ahead of the double-header weekend, with 2016 Super Formula champion Kunimoto enjoying a strong qualifying to line-up 12th for Race 1. After a competitive start to Saturday’s contest, both drivers were unable to capitalise on fresh tyres following the pit stops and finished outside the points.
Having qualified 15th for the final round, Kobayashi drove superbly throughout Sunday’s 31-lap race, making up five positions to give the team its final point of the season in tenth. Kunimoto continued his fine qualifying form to move into Q2 for a second time, securing 12th on the grid again, but was unable to translate his pace into a points finish.
#18 YUJI KUNIMOTO
“We decided to use a different setup compared to the one we had at Suzuka in April, but unfortunately it didn’t work in our favour. We had a very tough race on Saturday, and we couldn’t find what was causing us to lose time. We made a lot of changes overnight, but we still struggled on Sunday. It’s a shame not to end the year with a positive result, but I’ll continue working on improving and coming back stronger.”
#7 KAMUI KOBAYASHI
“Unfortunately, we weren’t as competitive this weekend as we had been earlier in the year at this circuit, and we struggled for pace in qualifying. The car felt good on track, but we couldn’t progress into Q2. We found it difficult to challenge the cars around us in the race, and we struggled to benefit from changing tyres during the pitstop. We were in a much better position after some tweaks to the car on Sunday, and I was able to make up several places to end the season with a top-10 finish.”
TSUGIO MATSUDA TEAM MANAGER
“We started our weekend with good pace in Free Practice, but we struggled on Saturday. Yuji performed well in qualifying, but we couldn’t get either car into the top 10 which compromised our progress in the race. Sunday went better for us, and Kamui was able to score a point after making up positions in the race. We’ll be working hard in the off-season to improve, and we’ll be aiming to secure much better results in 2023.”
RYUJI DOI KCMG HEAD OF MOTORSPORT
“We are already at the end of the season, and sadly we couldn’t achieve what we wanted this year. However, we’ll continue to push and focus on preparing for the test sessions coming up in December, with the target of bouncing back to a much stronger position in 2023. A big thank you to Kidscom for their support this year, and we’re looking forward to returning to the series next 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.
About 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. This includes the FIA Motorsport Games, where KCMG is the official supplier of hybrid F4 cars, and the KCMG Driver Development Project. For more information on all of the team’s activities please visit www.kcmg.com.hk or email info@kcmg.com.hk
