Super Formula rounds three and four recap: Dandelion continues win streak, leads both championships
- Tarun Suresh
- 8 hours ago
- 5 min read
Written by Tarun Suresh
Round three
The race weekend started with one of the most exciting qualifying sessions in recent Super Formula history. Makino took pole position, just a couple of tenths ahead of his teammate Ohta, who qualified second. Rookie sensation Igor Fraga put together an electrifying lap to qualify third.
Sacha Fenestraz returned to form with an impressive fifth. Title challenger Sho Tsuboi qualified only twelfth, his worst qualifying performance since Motegi 2022.
The race started with a phenomenal start from Fraga, and almost got the lead from Makino, but had to settle for second. His teammate Ren Sato didn’t share his fortunes as he had an incident with Toshiki Oyu, which left them both out of the race. A safety car was brought out after the incident.
Ohta was the first to pit on lap 11, which started a chain of stops that soon followed. Only four drivers from the top half of the field didn’t pit around that time: Makino, Fraga, Iwasa and Tsuboi.
Fraga made a pitstop at an unusual time on lap 18, and Makino soon followed on the next lap. Ohta’s early stop paid off as he was ahead of Fraga and Makino after their stops.
Tsuboi pitted from the lead on lap 20, and a quick stop put him eighth ahead of Nojiri and Fenestraz. Good teamwork from the Team TOM’s drivers saw them working together to dispatch Nojiri.
Towards the front of the field, Makino had gotten his tires up to speed and, after a thrilling fight with his teammate, got the lead.
On lap 26, Iwasa’s car had an issue while chasing down Fraga, which forced him out of the race. This promoted Fukuzumi to fourth and Tsuboi to fifth. An effortless overtake from Tsuboi saw him take fourth place.
Makino’s win at this circuit last year was controversial, having won it after his teammate retired from the lead. Even Makino himself reciprocated feelings that he perhaps wasn’t deserving of the win. This time, though, he won the race on merit and won it quite comfortably. Ohta held off a charging Fraga on tires that were 7 laps older to finish second. Fraga followed closely to finish third, becoming the first rookie to score a podium this year. Tsuboi had yet another fantastic race to finish fourth, having started twelfth. Fukuzumi rounded off the top five.
This race marked the first Dandelion 1-2 finish since 2012. They now lead the Team’s Championship by 36 points.
Makino and Ohta moved to the top two spots in the championship, separated by just five points. Tsuboi was eight points behind Ohta in third place. Iwasa, the championship leader heading into the weekend, dropped down to fourth in the standings.
Round four
Contrary to the previous qualifying session, which was a close three-way battle, round 4 gave way to the most dominant pole position since Yuhi Sekiguchi’s pole at round five of the 2022 season.
Kenta Yamashita put together a sensational lap to qualify on pole by half a second. The Dandelion boys, Ohta and Makino, were separated by just six-tenths, qualifying second and third, respectively.
Sena Sakaguchi ended the session in a comfortable fourth place, and Fenestraz, yet again, rounded off the top five.
The Mugens had an abysmal qualifying session, with a seventh place on the grid for Nojiri and a ninth for Iwasa. Tsuboi also had a qualifying session that he’d want to forget, as he qualified just 15th, tied for his worst qualifying position since the season finale of his rookie season, 2019. Nirei Fukuzumi qualified tenth but would start from the pit lane due to a brake issue, which wasn’t fixed till the formation lap.
Ohta had a great start but couldn’t get past the polesitter. Toshiki Oyu also had a good start, jumping to fifth, starting eighth on the grid.
Hibiki Taira crashed out at turn one, bringing out the safety car. Quite a few drivers came into the pits, including the top two, Yamashita and Ohta. Yamashita was the victim of a slow stop and lost a position to Ohta in the pits.
Yamashita’s woes didn’t end there, however, as his right rear wasn’t put on properly, which put him all the way down at twenty-first.
At the restart, Makino used his wits to get himself a great start ahead of Iwasa and gained a lead of two whole seconds after a single sector. Sho Tsuboi got himself into the podium positions with an absolutely remarkable overtake on Ren Sato.
A few laps later, Tsuboi’s teammate Fenestraz replicated that exact move on Nirei Fukuzumi to cement himself in a net second position firmly.
Tsuboi’s race pretty much came to an end on lap 16 as his clutch suffered from an issue. The reigning champion retired from the race on lap 18, but his race didn’t end there. The Team TOM’s crew managed to fix the car and sent Tsuboi out one lap down.
Makino pitted from the lead on lap 24, he came out in net third and quickly dropped down to a net fifth behind Sakaguchi and Oshima. Supersub Rikuto Kobayashi retired from the race on lap 27 after a tire issue.
Makino made his way back to a net second after a handful of beautiful overtakes. Iwasa pitted from the lead on lap 28 and came out second behind Ohta, and crucially ahead of Makino. However, Iwasa made a mistake at turn one and lost second place to Makino.
Tsuboi once again retired from the race on lap 30.
Last year, Ohta lost the win in the last lap at Motegi. He got his redemption race and won this race by four and a half seconds on tires that were 23 laps older than second-place finisher Tadasuke Makino. Iwasa was the final man on the podium. Fenestraz brought home a fourth-place finish, the best finish for the No.37 car since 2022. Sena Sakaguchi finished fifth after an impressive yet quiet race.
After round four, Ohta leads Makino in the Driver’s Championship by one point, with 61 and 60 points respectively. Iwasa is a distant third with 41 points to his name. Reigning champion Sho Tsuboi is fourth with just 31 points.
In the Team’s Championship, Dandelion led by a landslide, with 111 points, more than twice as many points as second-placed Team Mugen, who have 52 points.
With Tsuboi’s unfortunate DNF, it looks like the season is going to be a two-horse race with the two Dandelions battling it out for the championship in what will surely be a close fight.
The next round of the season will take place at Autopolis from 17-18 May. With the title rivals separated by just one point, this race will be one to look out for!
