Monaco Increase Managed driver David Vidales ended a troublesome weekend at Sportsland Sugo circuit with a good comeback into the point zone, securing seventh place in the 2023 Super Formula Lights points standings thanks to a fifth and sixth place finish. Before the event, Vidales had been the quickest in a testing session that took place on the same track. Coming into the weekend though, weather conditions changed significantly and the #51 B-Max driver appeared to be struggling with massive oversteer and a general loss of grip. As a consequence, he couldn’t manage better than P6 and P7 respectively in the two back-to-back classification sessions. The first race (round 4 of the championship) proved even more frustrating as Vidales was hit by Futurani’s car shortly after the star and spun along the track, having to drive back to pits for a quick damage check on his car. From there, he tried to rejoin the race but the pit lane light was still red and he had to serve a penalty for that, resulting in a disappointing P11 race finish.

Yet, Vidales took good use of his experience to take the best out of the second race, where he was able to gain a couple of positions at the start and drive all the way to the chequered flag in fifth position. Round 6 final on Sunday was even more satisfying as Vidales had to start from the eleventh slot on the grid (following his result in the first race) but made a good comeback already on lap 1, soon appearing at the back of the leaders’ group. The next round of the series is scheduled at the end of this month at Suzuka, a track Vidales knows well and that makes him even more determined to achieve a good result.