2008 Formula Nippon Championship

The 2008 Formula Nippon Championship was the thirty-sixth season of the premier Japanese open-wheel motor racing series. The series for Formula Nippon racing cars was contested over eight rounds. All teams have to use Lola chassis () and have the choice between utilising Mugen Honda () or Toyota () engines.

Defending champion Tsugio Matsuda secured the championship with a round in hand. Together with team mate Kohei Hirate, Matsuda's Team Impul also secured the teams championship with a round to go.

Teams and drivers[]

Team	#	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Rounds
Lawson Team Impul	1	Tsugio Matsuda	Lola FN06	Toyota RV8J	All
	2	Benoît Tréluyer	Lola FN06	Toyota RV8J	All
Kondo Racing	3	Naoki Yokomizo	Lola FN06	Toyota RV8J	All
	4	João Paulo de Oliveira	Lola FN06	Toyota RV8J	All
SG Team 5Zigen	5	Toshihiro Kaneishi	Lola FN06	Honda HF386E	All
	6	Katsuyuki Hiranaka	Lola FN06	Honda HF386E	1–4, 7–8
		Hiroki Yoshimoto			5–6
Team LeMans	7	Satoshi Motoyama	Lola FN06	Toyota RV8J	All
	8	Hiroaki Ishiura	Lola FN06	Toyota RV8J	All
TP Checker Team Impul	20	Kohei Hirate	Lola FN06	Toyota RV8J	1–6, 8
		Richard Lyons			7
PIAA Nakajima Racing	31	Loïc Duval	Lola FN06	Honda HF386E	All
	32	Takashi Kogure	Lola FN06	Honda HF386E	All
Petronas Team TOM'S	36	André Lotterer	Lola FN06	Toyota RV8J	All
	37	Seiji Ara	Lola FN06	Toyota RV8J	All
DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing	40	Kosuke Matsuura	Lola FN06	Honda HF386E	All
	41	Takeshi Tsuchiya	Lola FN06	Honda HF386E	All
Cerumo/Inging	47	Ronnie Quintarelli	Lola FN06	Toyota RV8J	All
	48	Yuji Tachikawa	Lola FN06	Toyota RV8J	All
Autobacs Racing Team Aguri	55	Yuji Ide	Lola FN06	Honda HF386E	All
	56	Takuya Izawa	Lola FN06	Honda HF386E	All
Stonemarket Blaak Cerumo/Inging	67	Roberto Streit	Lola FN06	Toyota RV8J	All

Calendar[]

Suzuka

Motegi

Okayama

Fuji

SUGO

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2008 venues

• All races held in Japan.

Round	Circuit	Date	Pole Position	Fastest Lap	Winning Driver	Winning Team
1	Fuji Speedway	6 April	Tsugio Matsuda	Yuji Tachikawa	Tsugio Matsuda	Team Impul
2	Suzuka Circuit	11 May	Tsugio Matsuda	Yuji Tachikawa	Tsugio Matsuda	Team Impul
3	Twin Ring Motegi	25 May	Tsugio Matsuda	Tsugio Matsuda	Tsugio Matsuda	Team Impul
4	Okayama International Circuit	8 June	Tsugio Matsuda	Satoshi Motoyama	Loïc Duval	Nakajima Racing
5	Suzuka Circuit	13 July	Tsugio Matsuda	Hiroaki Ishiura	Tsugio Matsuda	Team Impul
			Satoshi Motoyama	Roberto Streit	Kohei Hirate	Team Impul
6	Twin Ring Motegi	10 August	Tsugio Matsuda	Roberto Streit	Loïc Duval	Nakajima Racing
			Takeshi Tsuchiya	Takeshi Tsuchiya	Seiji Ara	TOM'S Racing
7	Fuji Speedway	31 August	João Paulo de Oliveira	Takashi Kogure	João Paulo de Oliveira	Kondō Racing
			Kosuke Matsuura	Toshihiro Kaneishi	Kosuke Matsuura	Dandelion Racing
8	Sportsland SUGO	21 September	Satoshi Motoyama	Loïc Duval	Tsugio Matsuda	Team Impul

Championship standings[]

Drivers' Championship[]

Scoring system

* – In race 2 at the August Fuji meeting, the race was run behind the safety car for five laps before the race was halted. Half points were awarded.

Pos Driver FUJ SUZ MOT OKA SUZ MOT FUJ SUG Pts 1 Tsugio Matsuda 1 1 1 Ret 1 8 2 2 4 5 1 93.5 2 Loïc Duval 10 10 3 1 6 2 1 Ret 2 7 3 62 3 André Lotterer Ret 3 2 2 2 4 11 7 5 4 12 49 4 Kohei Hirate Ret 2 6 3 5 1 Ret DNS 5 42 5 Takashi Kogure 6 5 Ret 9 3 7 5 Ret 3 6 2 41 6 João Paulo de Oliveira Ret Ret 9 11 4 5 3 3 1 8 6 33 7 Yuji Tachikawa 2 17 7 4 17 12 4 4 9 9 15 31 8 Benoît Tréluyer 4 7 Ret 8 Ret 13 15 Ret 7 2 4 27 9 Ronnie Quintarelli 5 8 Ret 7 10 9 Ret 13 6 3 7 21.5 10 Takuya Izawa Ret 9 4 5 12 Ret Ret 12 18 17 8 19 11 Satoshi Motoyama Ret 4 16 Ret 8 3 9 5 14 14 Ret 14 12 Naoki Yokomizo NC 6 11 6 7 6 Ret 11 12 12 Ret 12 13 Roberto Streit 3 15 Ret Ret 11 10 Ret 9 19 18 10 11 14 Seiji Ara Ret 11 10 10 13 11 7 1 10 10 16 9 15 Toshihiro Kaneishi 11 Ret 5 14 Ret 14 6 Ret 16 20 11 9 16 Hiroaki Ishiura 7 13 8 Ret 14 Ret 13 8 17 16 9 9 17 Takeshi Tsuchiya 8 14 14 12 16 Ret 8 14 11 11 14 4 18 Kosuke Matsuura 12 16 12 13 9 Ret 10 6 8 1 13 3.5 19 Yuji Ide 9 18 15 NC 15 Ret 12 Ret NC 19 17 2 20 Hiroki Yoshimoto 18 15 14 10 0 21 Katsuyuki Hiranaka Ret 12 13 15 15 15 Ret 0 22 Richard Lyons 13 13 0 Pos Driver FUJ SUZ MOT OKA SUZ MOT FUJ SUG Pts

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Did not arrive (DNA) Excluded (EX) Bold - Pole Italics - Fastest Lap

Teams' Championship[]

Scoring system

External links[]

• 2008 Japanese Championship Formula Nippon