Tadasuke Makino claimed his second Super Formula win of the season with a spirited drive at Motegi, but only after team-mate Kakunoshin Ota had lost the lead.
The Dandelion Racing team were on target to take first and second place heading into the ultimate stages of the 37-lap race, as Ota held a slight advantage over Makino.
Ota was running second at the beginning of the race behind polesitter Kenta Yamashita (Kondo Racing), but managed to maneuver into the lead by pit-stopping because the service window opened at the tip of lap 10.
Makino, meanwhile, inherited second place, moving from fifth on the grid to 3rd on the primary lap, and hovered close behind Yamashita until his pit stop on lap 22.
Kondo Racing driver Yamashita pitted on the next lap, falling behind Makino, while Ota moved into the lead after completing all mandatory stops because of an early stop and a greater lap of the slower cars.
Ota initially had an 11-second lead, but Makino began to shut in at a rate of virtually two seconds per lap, passing one other automobile that had stopped early, Toshiki Oyu.
Makino caught up with Ota with two laps remaining within the race and the Dandelion pair began a fierce battle for victory.
Ota looked as if it would have done all the things he could to secure victory when Makino fouled and tackled his team-mate at Turn 10.
However, on the next lap, Ota's rear tyres caught fire and he spun on the exit of the right-hander at Turn 11, causing the engine to stall and the driving force to retire on the spot, denying Dandelion his first one-two since 2012.
While it initially appeared that Ota had made a mistake, the team suspects that a throttle issue was the explanation for his retirement from the race.
Ota's spin gave Makino his second win in 4 races, edging Yamashita by 1.6s.
Tomoki Nojiri claimed a podium finish for Team Mugen, maintaining a five-point lead over recent closest championship rivals Makino with 4 races remaining within the season.
Kakunoshin Ohta, DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING
Photo: Masahide Kamio
Naoki Yamamoto of Nakajima Racing finished fourth, while Sho Tsuboi moved up from eighth on the grid to fifth with TOM'S.
Nojiri, Yamamoto and Tsuboi pitted relatively late, allowing them to quickly overtake Inginga Oyu, who pitted with Ota on lap 10.
Oyu held on to sixth position, ahead of the recovering Ayumu Iwasa within the second Mugen automobile, early stopper Kazuto Kotaka (Kondo), Nirei Fukuzumi in the highest KCMG automobile and Ren Sato within the second Nakajima automobile.
Nyck de Vries finished his first Super Formula race in thirteenth place for Team Impul, one position behind his Toyota World Endurance Championship stablemate Kamui Kobayashi (KCMG).
Sena Sakaguchi was the one driver to retire from the race when his Inging machine stopped on lap 17, but this didn’t cause the protection automobile to be deployed.
Super Formula Motegi – Race results:
