Tomoki Nojiri earned his first Super Formula victory of the season in Saturday’s opening race of the final weekend in Suzuka, as his Mugen team-mate Ayumu Iwasa retired after first-lap contact.
Red Bull Formula 1 reserve driver Iwasa had gained the momentum in the championship battle after scoring two pole positions during the morning’s two qualifying sessions.
But a slow start allowed Iwasa’s Mugen team-mate Nojiri to get the jump into Turn 1 while also giving Igor Fraga, who qualified third, the chance to challenge for second.
As the field rounded the Esses for the first time, light contact between an attacking Fraga and Iwasa put the latter off the road, into the barriers and out of the race. Fraga escaped a penalty as the contact was ruled a racing incident.
The safety car was called as a result, with Nojiri leading the two Nakajima cars of Fraga and Ren Sato and the Dandelion Racing machine of Tadasuke Makino.
That was how the order remained after the race resumed on lap 6 of 26, but a crash for Zak O'Sullivan at Turn 1 on lap nine triggered another safety car, which fell just as the pit window opened and forced the entire field to pit together on lap 10.
Nojiri retained the lead ahead of Fraga, but Sato dropped down the order as Nakajima was forced to double-stack its cars, promoting Makino to third.
Fraga initially looked like he might be in a position to challenge Nojiri when the race resumed on lap 12, but after several laps the Brazilian's pace began to fade.
But second place, 1.159 seconds behind Nojiri, still represented Fraga's best ever Super Formula result and also cemented his status as Rookie of the Year.
Makino hung on to third, while TOM’S driver Sho Tsuboi finished fourth to extend his lead in the championship to 16.5 points, with 40 on offer in Sunday’s final two races.
In the closing stages, Tsuboi had to fend off Kakunoshin Ohta, who had slumped to 12th with a poor start, but made incisive progress back through the field with a series of swashbuckling moves, including an around-the-outside pass at Turns 1 and 2 on Nirei Fukuzumi.
Ohta made one attempt to pass Tsuboi at the chicane on the penultimate lap but had to settle for fifth, putting him back level on points with Iwasa in the standings.
Rounding off the top 10 were Kazuya Oshima (Rookie Racing), who exits the series after this weekend, Fukuzumi (KCMG), a recovering Sato and Atsushi Miyake, who passed Kenta Yamashita on the final lap to score ThreeBond Racing’s first point of the year.
Makino heads into Sunday morning’s replacement race with a deficit of 20.5 points but with pole already in the bag, having taken pole for the cancelled Fuji race last month.
Fraga will start alongside Makino in second, with Ohta lining up third for a 19-lap sprint race with no mandatory pitstops.
The afternoon’s final race, which runs to 31 laps with the usual mandatory stop, will feature Iwasa and Nojiri on the front row ahead of Sato.
Super Formula Suzuka II - Race 1 results
RACE1
| Cla | Driver | # | Laps | Time | Interval | km/h | Pits | Points | Retirement | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  T. Nojiri Team Mugen |
16 | 26 |
52'03.951 |
20 | ||||||||
| 2 |  I. Fraga PONOS Nakajima Racing |
65 | 26 |
+1.159 52'05.110 |
1.159 | 15 | |||||||
| 3 | T. Makino Dandelion Racing |
5 | 26 |
+5.734 52'09.685 |
4.575 | 11 | |||||||
| 4 | S. Tsuboi Vantelin Team TOM'S |
1 | 26 |
+7.684 52'11.635 |
1.950 | 8 | |||||||
| 5 | K. Ohta Dandelion Racing |
6 | 26 |
+8.639 52'12.590 |
0.955 | 6 | |||||||
| 6 | K. Oshima docomo business ROOKIE |
14 | 26 |
+18.327 52'22.278 |
9.688 | 5 | |||||||
| 7 | N. Fukuzumi Team KCMG |
8 | 26 |
+20.915 52'24.866 |
2.588 | 4 | |||||||
| 8 |  S. Fenestraz Vantelin Team TOM'S |
37 | 26 |
+21.136 52'25.087 |
0.221 | 3 | |||||||
| 9 | R. Sato PONOS Nakajima Racing |
64 | 26 |
+23.459 52'27.410 |
2.323 | 2 | |||||||
| 10 | A. Miyake ThreeBond Racing |
12 | 26 |
+25.805 52'29.756 |
2.346 | 1 | |||||||
| 11 | K. Yamashita Kondo Racing |
3 | 26 |
+26.289 52'30.240 |
0.484 | ||||||||
| 12 | T. Oyu Sanki Vertex Partners Cerumo - INGING |
39 | 26 |
+28.458 52'32.409 |
2.169 | ||||||||
| 13 |
S. Koide San-Ei Gen with B-Max
|
50 | 26 |
+29.591 52'33.542 |
1.133 | ||||||||
| 14 | S. Sakaguchi Sanki Vertex Partners Cerumo - INGING |
38 | 26 |
+35.038 52'38.989 |
5.447 | ||||||||
| 15 | K. Kobayashi Team KCMG |
7 | 26 |
+36.172 52'40.123 |
1.134 | ||||||||
| 16 |
S. Nonaka KDDI TGMGP TGR-DC
|
29 | 26 |
+36.540 52'40.491 |
0.368 | ||||||||
| 17 | J. Noda Hazama Ando Triple Tree Racing |
10 | 26 |
+38.880 52'42.831 |
2.340 | ||||||||
| 18 | M. Takaboshi Itochu Enex Wecars Team Impul |
20 | 26 |
+41.416 52'45.367 |
2.536 | ||||||||
| 19 |  O. Rasmussen Itochu Enex Wecars Team Impul |
19 | 26 |
+45.900 52'49.851 |
4.484 | ||||||||
| dnf |  Z. O'Sullivan Kondo Racing |
4 | 8 |
+18 Laps 19'30.347 |
18 Laps | Retirement | |||||||
| dnf | A. Iwasa Team Mugen |
15 | 0 |
|
Retirement | ||||||||
| dnf | K. Kotaka KDDI TGMGP TGR-DC |
28 | 0 |
|
Retirement | ||||||||
| View full results | |||||||||||||
Read and post comments