carrozzeria Team KCMG narrowly missed out on a points finish in the 2020 Super Formula season finale at the Fuji Speedway, with Kamui Kobayashi crossing the line 11th, ahead of Yuji Kunimoto in 15th.
After showing good progress in the free practice sessions, Kobayashi endured a difficult qualifying session and joined team-mate Kunimoto on the ninth row of the grid, with both missing out on getting into Q2.
Former Formula 1 driver Kobayashi made a solid getaway from 17th and moved up to 15th early on, taking another place before pitting. Good work by the Hong Kong squad saw the 2019-20 FIA World Endurance Champion emerge back in 12th, which became 11th at the finish after a retirement ahead.
Starting from 18th, and after a promising initial start, Kunimoto was unable to make progress through the field and ended his 2020 season with a 15th-place result. Despite this, Kunimoto held on to finish ninth in the final standings.
carrozzeria Team KCMG remain in Fuji for a two-day post-season test on 22-23 December, with Kunimoto and Kobayashi both taking part.
Yuji Kunimoto: “The final event of this season is now over and it was a tough race weekend for us. In qualifying I couldn’t get out of Q1 and had to start 18th. I couldn’t catch up from that position in the race. I was able to improve at the start but I couldn’t keep up with the pace. At the end of the race, I had a good battle but overall it was a challenge. I felt the car got better-and-better at each weekend, but we will use this test to find out where we can still improve. I wish I could’ve given the team a good result to end the year after this tough season. During the winter break I will focus on training hard and being in a good position to challenge next year.”
Kamui Kobayashi: “Thanks to everyone in the team for their support this weekend and throughout the year. I had been looking to challenge for the title this season, but unfortunately we couldn’t quite reach the top level. I missed two races, but I could still see the improvements made by the whole team. We were getting stronger and stronger, but it just didn’t come together in the final. I will continue to test with the team and try to identify some problems so we’re well placed ahead of next year.”
Tsugio Matsuda, Team Manager: “The momentum was not great from qualifying onwards. We tried our best to catch up in the race, but were unable to challenge for the top positions. We’d like to do our best with the drivers, mechanics and engineers to improve further next year. Thanks to our fans and partners for their support, we will do our best to come back stronger.”
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.
