Liam Lawson has missed out on the Super Formula title after finishing second in the season finale at Suzuka.
Lawson entered the final race of the year with an outside chance of stealing the crown from points leader Ritomo Miyata.
The New Zealander was sixth in Saturday’s race, an encounter red-flagged following a hefty crash for Ukyo Sasahara and Hiroki Okusa.
He improved to second in Sunday’s finale as Kakunoshin Ota won as Lawson ended his rookie campaign eight points shy of Miyata, who was third at the flag.
Lawson had started from pole but dropped a spot to Ota as the race began.
Tomoki Nojiri in third also looked to attack the Kiwi into the first corner but instead found himself compromised as the field reached Turn 2, opening the door for Miyata to steal the place.
The race then settled down with the points leader the first to pit after 12 of the scheduled 31 laps.
Lawson followed suit next time by to protect against the undercut.
The 22-year-old rejoined and quickly came under fire from Miyata, the pair going side-by-side into the hairpin midway around the lap, Lawson doing enough to hold on to the effective second place.
Ota pitted from the race lead and resumed still in control, going on to build a small advantage over the ex-Scuderia AlphaTauri driver behind.
At the chequered flag, he held a 1.5s lead to Lawson with Mitaya third and Nojiri fourth in a result that left him third in the title fight, half a point down on his Team Mugen team-mate.
It marked Mitaya’s first Super Formula title and ended Nojiri bid to claim his third title in as many years – a feat last accomplished by Saturo Nakajima more than 35 years ago.
Lawson meanwhile ended his rookie season in the Japanese championship second with three wins to his name, twice at Fuji and once at Autopolis.
Team Mugen cruised to the teams’ championship with 188.5 points, well clear of TOM’S in second.
The seven-round 2024 Super Formula season is set to begin at Suzuka in March.
