The Latest Breaking News from Ritomo Miyata

Dandelion Racing driver Makino, who topped practice earlier on Saturday, posted a best lap of 1m22.063s at the end of the Q2 pole shootout to eclipse Team Mugen rival Lawson by 0.179 seconds.

Toyota star Hirakawa finds himself a distant fifth in the championship with four races to go, trailing leader Ritomo Miyata by 47 points, with a best finish so far of third place in both the opening race at Fuji and the third round at Suzuka.

The news that Giuliano Alesi is stepping down from his TOM’S Super Formula drive was both surprising and unsurprising in equal measure. Few expected he would survive beyond the end of 2023 with his current form, but equally a mid-season change of drivers didn’t seem to be on the cards…

The shock move follows another disastrous result for Alesi, the son of ex-Formula 1 driver Jean, in last weekend's Sugo race as he spun on the opening lap and was collected by Yuhi Sekiguchi, eliminating both drivers.

“I don't know what to say... how we can go from where we were to... I don't understand what the hell just happened."

Oyu started Sunday's fifth round of the season on pole and led the opening 11 laps of the race before being passed by eventual winner Ritomo Miyata on the approach to Turn 1 at the end of lap 12 of 51.

Oyu set his best time of 1m05.648s right at the end of the seven-minute Q2 session, edging out practice pacesetter Miyata by just 0.031s as the leading 12 drivers were separated by just eight tenths of a second.

The official results for the third round of the 2023 season were released on Monday, more than a week on from the 450km event, with no changes from the revised provisional results that were published late on the evening of the race.

Katsumasa Chiyo and Mitsunori Takaboshi were initially declared the winners of the 450km race after it was cut short for a huge crash involving the sister NISMO car of Tsugio Matsuda and the JLOC Lamborghini Huracan of Kosuke Matsuura.