Written by Tarun Suresh, Edited by Meghana Sree
After the thrilling race held at the foot of the iconic Mount Fuji a little over a month ago, Super Formula heads northeast to Motegi. A lap around this circuit, owned by Honda, spans 14 turns and a little less than five kilometres.
The fastest lap around this circuit was a 1:31.422 set by Toshiki Oyu in 2021, where he finished second, only 1.7 seconds behind the race-winning Hiroki Otsu. Will Oyu keep up his form from the weekend at Fuji and deliver another amazing performance?
While Oyu had an amazing weekend, filled with almost unrivalled pace and some fantastic defending and overtaking, at Fuji, the thunder was definitely stolen by Sho Tsuboi.
In his final stint, he made the rest of the field look like they were driving in Super Formula Lights, earning himself his first Super Formula win in four years. Tsuboi would most certainly be looking to continue that steamrolling performance into this race as well.
The current third-placed driver in the standings, Tadasuke Makino has had three top five finishes (including two podiums) in the past four races at this circuit. Both himself and the second-placed Tsuboi will be looking to finish ahead of Nojiri and shrink that 14 and 9.5 point gap, respectively, to Nojiri at the top.
Looking at the results of the previous races at this circuit from the past few years, one name stands out, and that is none other than Tomoki Nojiri. Like at every race this season, Nojiri will be the one to look out for. Oyu has had some good performances here in the past as well so he’s not one to ignore either.
Despite being pretty quick for a good part of this season, Iwasa had an abysmal performance last time around in Fuji, finishing outside the points in 11th place despite four sessions of mid-season testing taking place at this circuit while his teammate, the more experienced Nojiri finished third. He will be keeping his fingers crossed and hoping his woes don’t continue.
In other news, Super Formula (and Super GT) will be returning to Korea in the 2025 season for the first time since 2004! The circuit isn’t specified but it is expected to head to the Inje Speedium. The dates scheduled for the event are 6th to 8th June.
Nyck de Vries has signed with Team Impul for rounds 5,6, and 7 of the 2024 Super Formula season.
My prediction for the podium positions on Sunday are:
Tadasuke Makino
Sho Tsuboi
Nirei Fukuzumi
What are yours? Let us know in the comments below!
The qualifying session starts at 14:45 JST on Saturday, and the 37-lap race starts at 14:40 JST on Sunday.
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