2008 Formula Nippon Championship

The 2008 Formula Nippon Championship was the thirty-sixth season of premier Japanese single-seater racing, and the thirteenth under the Formula Nippon moniker. The series was contested over 11 races across eight weekends at five venues, with three double-header race meetings awarding half-points added to the calendar. 11 teams and 22 drivers competed over the course of the season.

Defending champion Tsugio Matsuda of Team Impul successfully defended his title and won his second series championship, becoming the first driver since Satoru Nakajima to win consecutive championships in Japanese top formula racing. Together with teammate Benoît Tréluyer, Team Impul also secured the teams championship with a round to go.

This was the final season for Lola as the series' chassis supplier, and the last race for Toyota and Honda's three-litre, naturally-aspirated V8 engines that were introduced in 2006. This was also the final season for four-time Formula Nippon Champion Satoshi Motoyama, who retired from the series after 2008.

All teams used tyres supplied by Bridgestone and Lola B06/51 chassis.

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

Suzuka

Motegi

Okayama

Fuji

SUGO

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 Motoyama1	Roberto Streit	Kohei Hirate	Team Impul
6	Twin Ring Motegi	10 August	Tsugio Matsuda	Roberto Streit	Loïc Duval	Nakajima Racing
			Takeshi Tsuchiya1	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 Matsuura1	Toshihiro Kaneishi	Kosuke Matsuura	Dandelion Racing
8	Sportsland SUGO	21 September	Satoshi Motoyama	Loïc Duval	Tsugio Matsuda	Team Impul

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 Second place Bronze Third place Green Points classification Blue Non-points classification Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired, not classified (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

1. For the doubleheader race weekends, the driver that finished 8th in Race 1 was awarded pole for Race 2 in a reverse grid from 8th to 1st. These are not officially counted as pole positions by the JRP.

• 2008 Japanese Championship Formula Nippon