Kalle Rovanpera has been forced to drop out of this week’s post-season Super Formula test at Suzuka due to illness, having completed only a single session.
The two-time World Rally champion made his debut in the Japanese series on Wednesday’s opening day of the three-day test, completing 32 laps in the morning session at the wheel of KCMG’s #8 car ahead of his full-time switch to single-seaters next season.
However, Rovanpera did not run during the afternoon at all due to illness having reportedly complained of discomfort in the closing stages of the opening session.
KCMG team boss Ryuji Doi told Motorsport.com immediately after the afternoon session that Rovanpera was resting with the aim of driving again on Thursday and Friday.
However, on Wednesday evening, Rovanpera revealed on Instagram that he will be sitting out the remainder of the week due to doctors’ orders.
On social media, Rovanpera wrote: “During [the] midday break I got symptoms of Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo, which affects balance and vision through [the] inner ear.
“I got [a] ban from the doctor to drive this week. Really disappointed as we didn’t have any chance to do any proper driving other than our aero test this morning.
“Bad luck to have this in our first outing. Now it’s time to heal up and I can only wait for the next time.”
Rovanpera’s best time in the morning was 7.173 seconds off the pace established by Nakajima Racing’s Igor Fraga, with the focus having been on data collection rather than any serious attempt to set a competitive lap time.
Fraga topped the timesheets with a best effort of 1m37.158s to eclipse team-mate Ren Sato by 0.160s. Kenta Yamashita meanwhile was third-fastest in the #7 KCMG car, only a further 0.024s back, in what marked his first ever Super Formula test outside Kondo Racing.
Japanese F4 champion Tokiya Suzuki was due to take over Yamashita’s car for the rookies-only final day of the test, and is expected to take over Rovanpera's car for Thursday as well.
Rovanpera’s next opportunity to drive the KCMG Dallara-Toyota will come in pre-season testing next February at Suzuka.
Before then, he will contest the Formula Regional Oceania Championship with Hitech, which is supporting his activities in Japan via an engineering tie-up with KCMG.
Ex-Alpine Formula 1 driver Jack Doohan’s first day at the wheel of a Super Formula car ended with a crash at Degner Curve in the afternoon session.
Doohan, who raced at Suzuka earlier this year in F1 before losing his Alpine seat in favour of Franco Colapinto after six races, ended up 21st-fastest with a best time of 1m39.683s.
Testing at Suzuka continues on Thursday, when Williams F1 junior Luke Browning is set to drive the sister Kondo Racing car for the first time alongside Doohan.
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