Mugen driver Nojiri came out top in a tense late duel with Saturday race winner Ryo Hirakawa (Impul) to take the chequered flag by a margin of 1.6 seconds for his seventh career win, giving himself the championship lead.
Ritomo Miyata completed the podium for TOM’S in third place, less than a second behind Hirakawa.
While Nojiri made a clean getaway from pole to maintain the lead early on ahead of fellow front-row starter Miyata, his Mugen teammate Ukyo Sasahara was left stranded on the grid for the second time in two days.
An early safety car period was called when Nobuharu Matsushita pitched Tadasuke Makino into a spin at Turn 10 on the opening lap, an incident that put Dandelion driver Makino out of the race.
Nojiri maintained the advantage over Miyata when the race resumed on lap 5 of 41, with Kenta Yamashita running third ahead of Kamui Kobayashi, Fenestraz and Hirakawa.
Fenestraz dropped to the rear of the pack with a spin, briefly promoting Hirakawa to fifth before he…
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