Seventy-seven points separate championship leader Sauter and his closest rival Sebastian Manson. With just 100 points left for the taking, Sauter sits on a comfortable lead and has the opportunity to decide the championship at the penultimate round in his favour. Feeder Series analyses how the Swiss-Japanese driver can win his first title in single-seaters. 

By Finjo Muschlien

Sauter has finished all races but one on the podium this year, and the only race where he didn’t manage to do so was the season opener at Suzuka, where he spun by himself behind the safety car on a damp track and had to retire the car. Two dominant and hard-fought wins followed that weekend, but he couldn’t extend his double wins to a triple-winning-streak, as he finished just second and third at Sugo. 

Debutant Fuma Horio won both races, while Sauter had his difficulties and couldn’t find a good setup. After a delayed flight, Sauter missed the first practice session and had to change his clothes in a car on his way to the Sugo circuit before he just arrived on time for the second practice session, which he topped. 

However, in the races, Sauter couldn’t match Horio’s pace – finishing third in race two while Manson finished second. Ahead of the fifth round at Fuji, this was the only time Sauter finished behind Manson.

At Okayama, Sauter returned to his winning form from Suzuka, despite pressure by Jesse Lacey. He crossed the line first in all three races but was demoted to second in the second race after receiving a 10-second time penalty for a jump-start. 

Two further wins followed at Motegi, but the first one was the most eventful. While Manson qualified on pole and led the whole race, Sauter – who started from second – had a difficult opening lap and dropped to third behind Horio. 

Sauter only regained second position on the penultimate lap and inherited the lead on the final lap on the start finish straight, just a few hundred metres shy of the chequered flag. Manson, who led the whole race made no mistakes upfront, until the final corner where he railed up on the kerb and he eventually lost out in the drag race to the line, before causing a bizarre coming together with Horio after the race already ended. 

Sauter won the second race in dominant fashion, leading from start to finish and building a 14-second gap to runner-up Manson. 

How can Sauter clinch the title?

A maximum of 100 points is up for grabs with four races to go. Sauter leads the championship with 201 points, ahead of Manson with 124 points and Lacey with 112 points . If Sauter continues his trend of finishing ahead of Manson in almost every race, he will become champion after the first race of this weekend’s round. In fact, if Sauter scores just two points less than Manson in the first race, he still can become champion.

Outside-candidate Lacey can only become champion if he wins at least three races and finishes the fourth race in at least third whilst Sauter goes scoreless. The odds of this happening are extremely low, unless Sauter withdraws from the remaining races or unforeseen circumstances occur. 

Whether Sauter will win the title is not in doubt; the question is whether he’ll wrap it up after race one or after race two this weekend. 

Since the second round of the season, a maximum of eight cars competed at each round, meaning that every driver scored at least eight points on a weekend when they finished both races. TGR-DC are entering the final two rounds of the season with Toyota prospects Yuki Sano and Kazuhisa Urabe, however, so a grid size of 10 or more cars can be expected at both rounds. This means the number of entries cannot decide the championship. The Fuji round this weekend will feature 13 cars.

Unfortunately, the practice sessions, qualifying sessions and races of round five won’t be broadcasted, as FR Japan is on the support bill of the World Endurance Championship. 

Header photo credit: Formula Regional Japanese Championship