Nirei Fukuzumi scored his second win of the Super Formula season amid a strange turn of events involving the safety car that left Igor Fraga furious at losing out on victory.
Rookie Racing driver Fukuzumi and Ayumu Iwasa were the two biggest beneficiaries of the safety car being called at the end of lap 27 of the 51-lap contest, owing to Sena Sakaguchi and Roman Stanek both hitting trouble at different points on the track.
Fraga had been leading the way at this point, the Nakajima Racing driver staying out as the early leaders Tomoki Nojiiri and Kakunoshin Ohta came in for their mandatory stops.
The safety car was scrambled just as Fraga was in the pits, and the Brazilian came out barely ahead of Nojiri’s Team Mugen machine and Ohta’s Dandelion Racing car.
However, while most of the drivers who were yet to stop followed Fraga into the pits, Fukuzumi and Mugen both stayed out and never caught the safety car before coming in for their tyre changes at the end of lap 28.
It gave the pair a huge advantage, and the rest of the pack, headed by Fraga, were given the wave-by to reset the gaps ahead of the restart on lap 36.
From there, stalemate prevailed among the top three drivers as Fukuzumi hung on by 0.505 seconds to score his fourth career Super Formula victory, and his second at Sugo, ahead of reigning champion Iwasa, while Fraga finished third.
In his parc ferme interview, Fraga said he “couldn’t accept” the circumstances in which he had lost the race, adding he felt the result should not be valid in light of what happened.
Behind the lead trio, Ohta passed Nojiri the lap after the restart to grab fourth and limit the damage to his points lead, which stands at 45.5 points with four races remaining.
Nojiri completed the top five ahead of Tadasuke Makino in the second Dandelion car, while the points places were filled out by the two TOM’S machines of Sho Tsuboi and Sacha Fenestraz, Zak O’Sullivan (Team Impul) and Ren Sato (Nakajima Racing).
Luke Browning made up 10 places from his lowly starting position of 21st but missed out on a points finish by just under three-tenths of a second in 11th. The Williams Formula 1 reserve driver endured an eventful Saturday as he suffered two offs in the gravel in the opening practice session, making contact with the barriers in the second instance, before being eliminated in his Q1 group.
Stanek meanwhile battled high fever to qualify a respectable 15th for Buzz MK Racing before his race came to an end in the gravel at Rainbow corner.
