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Lawson, who caused a sensation by winning on his debut in the Japanese series in the opening race on Saturday, finished third on the road in Sunday’s second encounter behind Tomoki Nojiri and Sho Tsuboi.
However, a five-second penalty for violating the safety car procedure demoted him to fifth in the final classification.
The penalty came about as a result of Lawson trying to create a large enough gap between himself and Mugen team-mate Nojiri, who ran second behind Toshiki Oyu in the early stages, for both to make their mandatory pitstops behind the safety car on lap 10 without losing time.
Inging driver Sena Sakaguchi was handed an identical penalty for a similar offence.
However, Lawson feels that at least some of the gap was down to TGM Grand Prix man Oyu intermittently speeding up and slowing down behind the safety car before leading a long train of car into the pits.
“I was disappointed about the penalty,” said Lawson, who was running fift …