Written by Tarun Suresh, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri
Round 6
Qualifying for the second race weekend in the backdrop of the iconic Fuji mountain took place early at 9:00 AM. The lower track temperatures early in the morning impacted how drivers fared. This included the likes of Kenta Yamashita and Toshiki Oyu, a favourite to put it on pole, not making it to Q2.
In the end, it was Nirei Fukuzumi who put his KCMG car on pole position at Fuji yet again. Second-placed Ohta was only four milliseconds off and was certainly eyeing a redemption victory after a throttle issue took him out of the fight for the win last time out at Motegi.
Championship leader Nojiri was breathing a sigh of relief after qualifying third, considering his title rivals Tsuboi and Makino qualified only seventh and ninth respectively.
Following closely was his teammate Iwasa, who desperately needed to prove he was worthy of a Formula One seat, especially after the two extremely disappointing performances in the two race weekends preceding the Fuji double header.
Iwasa was certainly on a charge, storming around the outside of turn one to steal the lead at the start. Pole-sitter Nirei Fukuzumi’s horrendous start dropped him down to fifth, and eventually sixth.
Ren Sato and Kakunoshin Ohta had put themselves in a good position for a podium and maybe even a win if the two Mugens experienced any trouble up front.
Iwasa’s lead didn’t last too long, however, as Nojiri made quick work of his teammate. Little did he know, there was a storm brewing right behind him, for Sho Tsuboi had started making his way up the field.
Tsuboi picked off the drivers ahead of him one by one, till the only one left was the championship leader Tomoki Nojiri. He made clever use of his OTS, but couldn’t get past the two-time champion ahead of him. Tsuboi stayed around half a second behind Nojiri till the first round of pit stops, waiting for him to dive into the pits first.
Around lap 10, Iwasa entered the pits, with Ohta soon following him in. When Nojiri eventually pit on lap 22, he found himself a few seconds behind Ohta, who in turn was a few seconds behind Iwasa. When Tsuboi pit a lap later, he crucially emerged ahead of Nojiri.
Despite putting up quite a fight, Nojiri couldn’t get past Tsuboi’s incredible defences. Right behind this scuffle was Kamui Kobayashi, who pounced on Nojiri at the first time of asking, and got past the 12-time race winner.
As the dust from the pit stops settled, Iwasa was leading the race while Ohta and Tsuboi were battling it out for second. Kobayashi and Nojiri were quite a way back in fourth and fifth.
Ohta found himself losing ground quickly as his tyres fading away. Kobayashi soon took third away from Ohta, who eventually dropped down to ninth on the road.
Nojiri’s misfortunes didn’t end there either. Tadasuke Makino crucially got ahead of Nojiri, and pole-sitter Fukuzumi soon followed. Nojiri finished the race a disappointing sixth, behind title rivals Tsuboi and Makino.
At the front of the field, Tsuboi got ahead of Iwasa with ease and cruised his way to the win, crowning himself the King of Fuji. Iwasa followed him from a distance finishing second. Kobayashi finished third, earning himself his first podium in the series since 2019.
The championship was at a fascinating state after round six. Nojiri still led, but his lead was cut to half a point. Makino in third sat only three points behind Nojiri. This race might’ve even brought Iwasa into the picture. To win the title, the rookie had to outscore his teammate by 13.5 points over the next three races.
Round 7
Qualifying for the final race at Fuji ended with Sho Tsuboi getting pole by almost three-tenths of a second with an amazing lap, the only sub 1:22 second lap of the day.
Championship leader Nojiri qualified second, with Nirei Fukuzumi third. The other title contender Tadasuke Makino, qualified fourth.
On the other side of the Mugen garage, however, Ayumu Iwasa was the slowest in Qualifying 2, qualifying only twelfth. The rookie, who put himself back into title contention the previous day, might have just taken himself out of it almost immediately.
As expected, Tsuboi started well and kept his lead. Behind him, Nojiri soon lost second place to Fukuzumi, and a bit later, lost third to Makino. Iwasa made up a few places up to ninth and a newly-motivated Kobayashi climbed up to seventh without using his OTS.
The action did not last long though, as Iori Kimura made contact with Atsushi Miyake, earning himself a drive-through penalty and bringing out the safety car. De Vries and Sasahara, both of whom were chasing their first points finish got tangled in the incident, the Dutchman having to pit to change his front wing.
During lap 12, Tadasuke Makino became the first of the front-runners to pit. Unfortunately for him, a safety car was brought on by Yuji Kunimoto clipping Kazuya Oshima, which took the latter out of the race.
The safety car allowed frontrunners Tsuboi and Fukuzumi to get quick pitstops and emerge ahead of Makino. Makino’s woes didn’t end there, either, as Ren Sato, running fourth before the former’s pitstop, jumped ahead after another quick pit stop.
Nojiri was fifth but on older tyres compared to those behind who pit under the safety car. After the safety car period ended, he was overtaken by Ohta, and eventually dropped down to ninth. His teammate, Iwasa had a better time and climbed up to sixth with some spectacular overtakes.
de Vries, meanwhile, showed a brilliant charge up the field. He was eleventh when the safety car ended, and charged his way up to eighth, where he finished the race, but he got a five-second penalty post-race which dropped him down to eleventh.
In the car in which the likes of Theo Pourchaire and Ben Barnicoat (who won the Le Mans in the pro-am category this year) struggled, this result is beyond impressive. Unfortunately, this is his last race in Super Formula for now, as he will miss the Suzuka rounds in November, featuring in Formula E’s pre-season test at Valencia.
With nine laps to go, Sena Sakaguchi and Naoki Yamamoto collided, bringing out yet another safety car. Yamamoto had to be taken to the medical centre via ambulance after the incident.
One can only hope him a speedy recovery, and he’ll be hoping to avoid a repeat of what happened last year when he skipped the remainder of the season after a horrific crash.
The only change for position after the safety car period saw Kobayashi getting past Iwasa.
The race ended with Sho Tsuboi comfortably winning a race at Fuji for the third time this season, joining Andre Lotterer in becoming the only other driver to win two races in the same weekend in Super Formula.
Fukuzumi followed closely, finishing second while Makino finished third, fending off Ren Sato who finished fourth. Unfortunately for Sato, he got a 10-second penalty post-race for contact with Makino after his pitstop.
Later, he ended up getting disqualified for a weight limit infringement. This resulted in Nojiri, jumping to seventh, while Kimura finished ninth after a solid comeback drive.
The dust has settled for the championship. Sho Tsuboi has one hand on the trophy, leading the championship by 14.5 points over Makino with two races to go.
Nojiri is 16.5 points behind Tsuboi. Iwasa is still mathematically in the title fight, but he would require plenty of luck to win the title, even if he has a perfect weekend at Suzuka next month.
Silly season is expected kick off soon amidst the Super Formula grid. Former Nissan Formula E racer Sacha Fenestraz is rumoured to return to the grid, while drivers like Iori Kimura, Ukyo Sasahara (who is yet to score a point in the same car as Tsuboi), Kazuto Kotaka, and Hibiki Taira are expected to lose their seats.
In addition, Kamui Kobayashi’s future is uncertain, with overlaps with the WEC calendar next year. It will certainly be exciting to see how the Super Formula silly season plays out and to see who will pull the trigger first.
Both Makino and Nojiri have historically been more successful at Suzuka compared to championship leader Sho Tsuboi. They are not out of the picture yet and can snatch the lead from Tsuboi with two great races. It will certainly be something worth looking forward to if the spectacular racing Super Formula provides isn’t enough.
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