The Latest Breaking News from Tomoki Nojiri

After making it through his Q1 group with the third-fastest time, Mugen driver Lawson was only ninth of the 12 cars in the Q2 pole shootout, with a laptime almost a second slower than pacesetter Toshiki Oyu.

Having already topped his Q1 group, Oyu found a huge chunk of time in the final segment of qualifying as he successfully broke the 1m36s barrier, securing pole position with a best effort of 1m35.792s.

At the start of the race, polesitter Nojiri immediately moved to the right to cover off a fast-charging Toshiki Oyu, who had made a blistering start from third on the grid to pass Ritomo Miyata for second.

Lawson stunned the Japanese series' establishment by becoming the first driver in the modern era of Super Formula to win first time out, after pulling off an undercut strategy to pass Mugen team-mate and two-time champion Tomoki Nojiri.

Having qualified third on the grid, Lawson passed the TGM car of Toshiki Oyu following a safety car restart on lap eight of 41 before settling in behind pole-sitter and Mugen team-mate Nojiri.

Red Bull junior Lawson will begin Saturday's opening race of the 2023 season from the second row, after qualifying just two tenths slower than Mugen team-mate and reigning champion Tomoki Nojiri.

After two seasons as a ‘super-sub’ in the Honda Super Formula stable, 2022 was supposed to mark the year that Sasahara became part of the furniture at the Sakura brand. Handed the chance to join Tomoki Nojiri at Team Mugen, Sasahara finally had the platform he had so desperately craved…

Lawson was back in Japan for this week’s two-day test, as well as last weekend’s Suzuka Fan Thanks Day event, as he gears up for his first season racing in Super Formula for defending champion outfit Team Mugen.

Reigning Super Formula champion Tomoki Nojiri topped the opening day of official pre-season testing at Suzuka, as the series' updated SF23 car proved immediately on the pace of its predecessor.