2010 Formula Nippon Championship

The 2010 Formula Nippon Championship was the thirty-eighth season of the premier Japanese open-wheel motor racing series. The series for Formula Nippon racing cars was contested over eight races at seven rounds, beginning on 18 April at Suzuka and ending at the same venue on 7 November. A non-championship meeting at Fuji Speedway completed the season's racing a week later.

Having missed the 2009 season to focus on his Super GT commitments, João Paulo de Oliveira returned to the series and claimed his first championship title since winning the 2005 All-Japan Formula Three Championship. Team Impul's de Oliveira had held the championship lead by a point over TOM'S driver André Lotterer before the final double-header round at Suzuka, but de Oliveira's victory – his second victory after a win at Twin Ring Motegi – and fourth against Lotterer's second and a third, de Oliveira won the championship by 4.5 points. As well as his win at Autopolis, Lotterer won both non-championship races at Fuji.

Third place was disputed by reigning champion Loïc Duval, who had moved from Nakajima Racing to Docomo Team Dandelion Racing over the off-season, and his former Nakajima team-mate Takashi Kogure, which was resolved in favour of Duval by 1.5 points; both drivers' championship chances had been stunted by no points at Autopolis, as Duval failed to start and Kogure retired from the race. Duval did tie with de Oliveira for most victories during the season with two – Motegi and Suzuka – while Kogure won the season-opening race at Suzuka. De Oliveira's team-mate Kohei Hirate finished the season fifth with a victory at Fuji, ahead of the season's other race-winner Kazuya Oshima of the TOM's team.

Team	#	Driver	Engine	Rounds
Docomo Team Dandelion Racing	1	Loïc Duval[1]	Honda HR10E	All *
	2	Takuya Izawa[1]		All *
Kondo Racing	3	Tsugio Matsuda[2]	Toyota RV8K	4–7 *
Team LeMans	7	Kei Cozzolino[2]	Toyota RV8K	All *
	8	Hiroaki Ishiura[2]		All *
HFPD Racing	10	Koudai Tsukakoshi[1]	Honda HR10E	All *
Motul Team Mugen	16	Yuji Ide[2]	Honda HR10E	All *
KCMG	18	Katsuyuki Hiranaka[2]	Toyota RV8K	All *
Mobil 1 Team Impul	19	João Paulo de Oliveira[2]	Toyota RV8K	All *
	20	Kohei Hirate[2]		All *
Deliziefollie/Cerumo-Inging	29	Takuto Iguchi[2]	Toyota RV8K	All *
Nakajima Racing	31	Naoki Yamamoto[1]	Honda HR10E	All *
	32	Takashi Kogure[1]		All *
Petronas Team TOM'S	36	André Lotterer[2]	Toyota RV8K	All *
	37	Kazuya Oshima[2]		All *

* Drivers who participated in the non-championship round at Fuji Speedway.

Suzuka

Motegi

Autopolis

Fuji

SUGO

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2010 venues

• All races were held in Japan. A non-championship round, entitled Super GT and Formula Nippon Sprint Cup 2010, was held at the conclusion of the season.

Round	Circuit	Date	Pole Position	Fastest Lap	Winning Driver	Winning Team
1	Suzuka Circuit	18 April	Takashi Kogure	Kohei Hirate	Takashi Kogure	Nakajima Racing
2	Twin Ring Motegi	23 May	João Paulo de Oliveira	João Paulo de Oliveira	João Paulo de Oliveira	Team Impul
3	Fuji Speedway	18 July	Loïc Duval	Kohei Hirate	Kohei Hirate	Team Impul
4	Twin Ring Motegi	8 August	Takashi Kogure	João Paulo de Oliveira	Loïc Duval	Dandelion Racing
5	Sportsland SUGO	26 September	Loïc Duval	André Lotterer	Kazuya Oshima	Petronas Team TOM'S
6	Autopolis	17 October	Kazuya Oshima	Kei Cozzolino	André Lotterer	Petronas Team TOM'S
7	Suzuka Circuit	7 November	Loïc Duval	Loïc Duval	Loïc Duval	Dandelion Racing
			João Paulo de Oliveira	Takashi Kogure	João Paulo de Oliveira	Team Impul
NC	Fuji Speedway (Fuji Sprint Cup)	13 November	Kei Cozzolino	André Lotterer	André Lotterer	Petronas Team TOM'S
		14 November	André Lotterer	André Lotterer	André Lotterer	Petronas Team TOM'S

Scoring system

† Round with two races and points scoring system for each race.
‡ Non-championship round, with no points awarded.

Pos Driver SUZ MOT FUJ MOT SUG AUT SUZ † FUJ ‡ Points 1 João Paulo de Oliveira 2 1 3 6 11 2 4 1 10 DSQ 47.5 2 André Lotterer 3 3 2 Ret 3 1 3 2 1 1 43 3 Loïc Duval 6 4 14 1 2 DNS 1 4 Ret 5 39.5 4 Takashi Kogure 1 6 5 2 5 Ret 2 3 6 DSQ 38 5 Kohei Hirate 4 7 1 3 12 8 9 6 5 6 25.5 6 Kazuya Oshima 12 8 4 5 1 DNS 5 7 2 8 24 7 Naoki Yamamoto 7 5 7 4 Ret 5 6 5 8 2 20.5 8 Hiroaki Ishiura 10 Ret 6 8 4 3 7 10 13 12 16 9 Koudai Tsukakoshi 8 2 11 10 Ret DSQ 10 12 3 7 9 10 Kei Cozzolino Ret 10 8 13 7 4 13 14 9 Ret 8 11 Takuya Izawa 5 11 9 11 6 DNS 11 11 7 4 7 12 Katsuyuki Hiranaka Ret DNS 13 7 Ret 7 12 13 12 11 4 13 Takuto Iguchi 11 Ret 12 12 10 6 15 Ret 14 9 3 14 Yuji Ide 9 9 10 9 9 DNS 8 8 4 3 1 15 Tsugio Matsuda Ret 8 Ret 14 9 11 10 1 Pos Driver SUZ MOT FUJ MOT SUG AUT SUZ † FUJ ‡ Points

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third 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

Scoring system

• 2010 Japanese Championship Formula Nippon