The Latest Breaking News from Super Formula

Off the back of his early success in Super Formula, Lawson had been thought of as a contender to make the step up to F1 as early as this year in the event that Red Bull elected to replace de Vries amid the rookie’s struggles.

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.

With five races down and four to go this year, B-Max is the only team still yet to score a single point. And that’s despite having two cars this year for the first time since the 2020 season.

Open engine competition was a feature of the old All-Japan Formula 3 series, and has continued in Super Formula Lights, which began in 2020 with the arrival of the current Dallara 320 chassis.

Open engine competition was a feature of the old All-Japan Formula 3 series, and has continued in Super Formula Lights, which began in 2020 with the arrival of the current Dallara 320 chassis.

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.

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.

With the COVID-19 pandemic finally in the rear-view mirror and Japan opening itself up to the world again, Super Formula's quest to achieve a more international following has returned to the top of the championship's agenda.