【SUPER FORMULA Round 5 / Suzuka】

New Suzuka track record by 1.5 seconds.
Yamamoto gets season’s first win from pole.

SUPER FORMULA Round 5

Date	2020/12/05
Venue	Suzuka Circuit
Weather	Fine
Surface	Dry
Race Lap	28Laps (1Lap = 5,807m)

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• >>Result

The Suzuka round of the 2020 Super Formula series was held as a doubleheader, having the fifth and sixth races on the same weekend. So, the qualifying and the race for round five were run on Saturday, December 5th, after the two practice sessions on Friday.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the series had to start much later than usual, ending in late December. Given the much lower temperatures in this time of year, the teams were allowed to use the tire warming equipment for the last two rounds, these two races at Suzuka and the season finale at Fuji. The aim was to reduce the cold tires’ risks, especially in their first few laps. And there were two formation laps in the race starting procedures, which had already been introduced in the previous round at Autopolis.

Therefore, during the Friday practice sessions, the teams and drivers were busy doing qualifying simulations under new conditions. Thanks to the tire warmers, some drivers could do an attack lap without prolonged warmup laps before that. Although it was unofficial, Ryo Hirakawa (Itochu Enex Team Impul) set a faster lap time than the existing track record. So, everyone was waiting to see how fast they would go in the qualifying session.

The race day for the fifth round was favored by beautiful weather with a cloudless clear sky and an almost dazzling sun. And, just as expected, the existing track record was broken even in Q1 of the qualifying session. In Group A of Q1, Naoki Yamamoto (Docomo Team Dandelion Racing) was the fastest by setting 1’35″153 and made his way to Q2. Even the sixth-fastest driver, Hiroaki Ishiura (JMS P.Mu/Cerumo Inging), exceeded the old record in this group.

As for Group B, the top four drivers, from Nirei Fukuzumi (Docomo Team Dandelion Racing) to Nobuharu Matsushita (Buzz Racing with B-Max), broke the record. Unfortunately, Hirakawa had a problem with his car just before the session began and couldn’t set any time, which forced him to start the race from the bottom of the grids.

Yamamoto improved his time to 1’35″055 in Q2, and it seemed a lap time faster than one minute and 35 seconds was within his reach. And he indeed set 1’34″533 in Q3 to secure his first pole position this season. Yamamoto made two qualifying attempts in Q3, using two sets of tires. The first trial saw 1’34″749, and he bettered it further in the second run.

Tomoki Nojiri (Team Mugen) got the second grid. The lap time he set in his last attempt was faster than that of Yamamoto, especially in Sector 1, but the 2018 champion beat him by putting a better lap time soon after that. With Fukuzumi ending the session in third, the Honda-powered drivers swept the qualifying top three. Kazuki Nakajima (Vantelin Team Tom’s), who was absent in the Autopolis round, came in fourth.

About two hours later, the race starting procedures got underway. And there was the first accident even before the race started, as Nojiri’s car stopped on the track at Spoon Curve on his reconnaissance lap. Helped by the course marshals, he managed to come back to the pit, and the team rectified what was wrong with his car, but the race officials ordered him to take the bottom grid, according to the rules. As a result, Nojiri’s chance to replay the fight for the lead with Yamamoto was lost.

Then, Yuhi Sekiguchi (Itochu Enex Team Impul) also stopped his car during the formation laps due to a problem with his engine. It took additional formation laps to clear up his halted car, which meant the race was shortened to 28 laps from the originally planned 30 laps before it finally started.

In contrast to these pre-start incidents, Yamamoto and Fukuzumi went through the first corner smoothly, and Kamui Kobayashi (Carrozzeria Team KCMG) was in third after making a perfect getaway. Soon after that, however, Tadasuke Makino (TCS Nakajima Racing) went off the track at Dunlop Corner, which called for the Safety Car to remove his car.

The racing resumed on Lap 6. Yamamoto started to pull away from Fukuzumi, setting the fastest lap over and over. Fukuzumi tried to keep up with his teammate, but he suddenly slowed down on Lap 10 because of a gearbox failure and had to retire the car at the end of the lap.

Fukuzumi’s ill fortune meant Kobayashi and Toshiki Oyu (TCS Nakajima Racing) were pushed up to second and third, respectively, but both of them lost ground by their slow pit stops. Instead, Nakajima and Yuji Kunimoto (Carrozzeria Team KCMG) were coming up through the field. While it appeared they were running in eighth and ninth on the leader board, they were the leaders among the drivers, who had already done their mandatory pit stop.

At the end of Lap 18, Yamamoto steered to the pit lane. When he was going to rejoin the race after the tire change, the Safety Car came out again because Matsushita crashed at 130R. The six yet-to-stop drivers took this opportunity to make their pit stops, and the actual order became apparent now. Yamamoto came back to the top of the field, followed by Nakajima and Kunimoto. Then Ukyo Sasahara (Team Mugen), Sho Tsuboi (JMS P.Mu/Cerumo Inging), Kobayashi, and Hirakawa lined up.

The race restarted at the beginning of Lap 23. Sasahara and Tsuboi immediately began to fight hard for the fourth, using the overtake system each other, and their battle helped Kobayashi and Hirakawa closing in. These four drivers became abreast on the pit straight, but there wasn’t enough space for four cars on the entry of Turn 1.

The inevitable happened, and Sasahara and Hirakawa ended the race in the barrier, while Tsuboi retired his car in the garage after crawling back there. Only Kobayashi survived this incident miraculously and moved up to fourth.

The race saw the third SC period, which ended when the field completed Lap 26 with just two laps to go. Yamamoto sprinted to the finishing line, set the fastest lap on the penultimate lap, and safely won the race. Nakajima couldn’t threaten the winner but secured second place, and Kunimoto followed in third, both claiming their season’s first podium finishes.

Hirakawa came to Suzuka as the championship leader but failed to add any points in the fifth round, which meant Yamamoto became the new leader of the point standings.