2019 SUPER FORMULA Round 3 Report

【SUPER FORMULA Round 3 / Sugo】

Yamamoto set under-64-second new course record.
Reigning champion secures his season’s first win.

SUPER FORMULA Round 3

Date 2019/06/22-23
Venue Sportsland Sugo
Weather Fine – Cloudy
Surface Dry
Race Lap 68Laps
(1Lap = 3,704m)
2019 SUPER FORMULA Round 3

The third round of the 2019 Super Formula series was held at Sports Land Sugo. After setting the new course record, the reigning champion Naoki Yamamoto (Docomo Team Dandelion Racing) won the race from the pole position. This was his first victory of the season.

Super Formula visited the Tohoku area this time. Sports Land Sugo is only about 30 minutes away by car from Sendai, the largest city in the area. The 3.704km racetrack is rather short but has quite a big elevation change in a lap, which makes it very challenging to the drivers. It is also prone to provoking accidents, which means that chances of the red flag or Safety Car are high.

There had already been a few wet sessions in the series this year and the forecast said there would be some rain in the weekend, too. But in fact, there were only occasional light showers during the sessions, so the qualifying session and the race were run on damp or dry tarmac.

For this event, Q1, which is normally run for 20 minutes, was divided into two ten-minute sections with a group of ten cars making their qualifying attempts in each section. This was a special measure for the Sugo round because traffic has often been a problem in the qualifying session on this short but fast track.

So, the top six of each group, twelve drivers in total, went into Q2. The fight in each group was so tight that even winners of the first and second rounds, Nick Cassidy (Vantelin Team Tom’s) and Yuhi Sekiguchi (Itochu Enex Team Impul), failed to clear the hurdle.

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Yamamoto was the fastest in his group of Q1 and then set 1’3″953 with the soft tires in Q2. This was the new course record which was almost 0.7 seconds faster than the existing one that had been set only a year ago. Needless to say, he went on to Q3 with the other seven drivers.

But Q3 was cut short by the red flag due to an accident which involved two cars and wasn’t restarted. And, as only Yamamoto had done a proper qualifying attempt at the time, he automatically became the pole sitter. Tomoki Nojiri (Team Mugen) took the second grid alongside Yamamoto and Lucus Auer (B-Max Racing with Motopark) secured the third grid which was the season’s best grid for the rookie.

Although the sky was overcast on Sunday morning, the weather was getting better, as patches of blue sky were seen in the afternoon. Thus, the 68-lap race began under the most favorable conditions throughout the weekend.

Yamamoto who chose the soft tires for the start led the field when they went through the first corner. Nojiri on the medium tires and Auer followed him, keeping their grid order.

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But Nojiri came into the pit at the end of the opening lap, as his team opted for a strategy that let him go for 67 laps with the soft tires, and he rejoined the race in 15th. However, because almost half of the field went for similar strategies and did their pit stop in a very early stage, Nojiri found himself running in eighth when those early stoppers had done their tire changes.

This meant that Yamamoto had to build a large enough gap with Nojiri to cover his own stop later.

The gap didn’t change much for a while until Yamamoto picked up his pace from Lap 20 or so. When Yamamoto came into the pit on Lap 51, he had a more than 50 second lead against Nojiri, so he could rejoin the race as an effective leader. Making the stop at the same time with Yamamoto, Auer also kept his position ahead of Nojiri.

But Nojiri closed the gap with Auer who was now on the medium tires and made a move at Turn 1 on Lap 56, resulting in going off the track because he was too optimistic to negotiate the corner. Nojiri had to end his race in the gravel bed and his halted car caused the Safety Car period.

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Seizing this opportunity, Alex Palou (TCS Nakajima Racing) who was trying to extend his stint as long as possible finally made his pit stop. This meant that all drivers had done their mandatory stops and now Yamamoto was actually leading the race. He was followed by Auer, with Kamui Kobayashi (Carrozzeria Team KCMG) being in third after starting from the fifth grid.

The Safety Car headed to the pit lane at the end of Lap 60. But, just as leading drivers started to pick up speed to resume racing on Lap 61, one of the backmarkers spun before crossing the start line and his car stranded on the track.

Because of this, the Safety Car had to come out again and led the field until the beginning of Lap 66 with just three laps to go. Kobayashi made the most of this second restart to overtake Auer and moved up to second.

Yamamoto cruised the remaining three laps to the checkered flag because he could feel safe, thanks to a lapped backmarker between him and Kobayashi. This was Yamamoto’s first win this season and Kobayashi finished in second after a nearly nine-month podium drought. And Auer’s third-place finish marked the first podium for him and his team, B-Max Racing with Motopark.

ENGINEER VOICE

Noritaka Koguchi [THE YOKOHAMA RUBBER CO., LTD.]

“Yamamoto’s qualifying time was beyond our expectations. As the conditions were relatively stable during Q2, we thought the new course record could be set in the section, but we supposed it would be one minute and four seconds plus something. So, I was really surprised to see 1’3”953 on the timing screen. We thought we could see such lap time only after a few seasons with these SF19 cars when we fully understood the car and tires, but we didn’t expect to see it so early like this.

“I am really happy that we won the first victory with my new team perfectly from pole position. I would like to thank our sponsors and the team for preparing a great car. As I started the race from the pole position, my plan was to make the best possible start and lead throughout the race.

“Starting with the soft tires, Yamamoto tried to go as long as possible and then changed to the medium tires on his way to winning the race. But, looking over the whole field, there were many different strategies. Despite the two Safety Car periods in the closing stage, I would say it was a good race with a number of exciting moments.

“The next round will be at Fuji in July. Unlike the first three rounds, it will be a hot summer race. There may be different strategies again or even unprecedented ones. Anyway, we hope to have another exciting but safe race.”