【SUPER FORMULA Round 4 / Sporsland SUGO】

Sekiguchi Puts End To Three-Year Pole Drought
Fukuzumi Takes Maiden Win In Super Formula

SUPER FORMULA Round 4

Date	2021/06/19-20
Venue	Sportsland SUGO
Weather	Fine
Surface	Dry
Race Lap	53Laps (1Lap = 3,586m)

• >>Report
• >>Result

The fourth round of the 2021 Super Formula Championship was held at Sportsland Sugo in Miyagi Prefecture. While Yuhi Sekiguchi (Carenex Team Impul) won the pole position for the first time in three years, Nirei Fukuzumi (Docomo Team Dandelion Racing) took the long-waited maiden victory in his third season in Super Formula.

The race track had improvement works during the off-season, and the free practice on Saturday, June 19th, was the first opportunity after that for the Super Formula cars to drive around it. Unfortunately, it rained on that day, but the 19 drivers and their teams worked on the car setup for the qualifying session on Saturday afternoon.

Fukuzumi set the fastest time in the free practice, and it was 0.3 seconds faster than that of Sena Sakaguchi (P.Mu/Cermo Inging), who was in second. Given the gap between Sakaguchi and his teammate Sho Tsuboi, who came in third, was only 0.014 seconds, Fukuzumi looked promising. However, he had to end the qualifying session in fifth, 0.5 seconds slower than the pole-sitter, as “the car felt very different from the practice session,” he said.

Instead, Sekiguchi showed brilliant performance in the qualifying. After placed fifth in the free practice, the Team Impul driver got through to Q2 by setting the fourth-fastest time. Then the Q2 session was stopped by the red flag before Sekiguchi completed his qualifying attempt. At this point, Nobuharu Matsushita (B-Max Racing Team) and Tsuboi became ineligible for Q3 by the rules because they caused the red flag.

Therefore, when the session resumed with only three minutes to go, Sekiguchi, Toshiki Oyu (TCS Nakajima Racing), and Tomoki Nojiri (Team Mugen) were at the risk of getting knocked out. And as the result of their last attempts, Sekiguchi and Oyu survived to Q3 by putting themselves in third and fifth, respectively, and Nojiri lost out by only 0.019 seconds.

The rain became heavier when Q3 began, which meant the track conditions were even more challenging. Nevertheless, Sekiguchi’s name moved up to the top of the timing monitor when he concluded his second timed lap. Ritomo Miyata (Kuo Vantelin Team Tom’s) and Sakaguchi once bettered it, but then Sekiguchi regained the top slot by improving his own time, securing his first pole position in three years. Tadasuke Makino (Docomo Team Dandelion Racing) came in second to sit on the front row, followed by Sakaguchi and Miyata on the second row.

Although there was a shower in the morning hours, the weather improved quickly on Sunday, June 20th. Despite the local weather office declaring that the rainy season began the previous day, it was like a summer day with bright sunshine. The 53-lap race got underway with the air/track temperatures at 24/34 degrees centigrade.

Sekiguchi got out of the first corner as the race leader. Sakaguchi followed him, as Makino’s getaway wasn’t an ideal one. At the same time, Fukuzumi and Oyu, who started from the fifth and seventh grid respectively, jumped up to third and fourth ahead of Makino. However, at the beginning of Lap 2, Sakaguchi lost his momentum after slight contact with Fukuzumi in their close battle and dropped down to sixth on the same lap.

Still leading the race, Sekiguchi managed to keep a small gap with Fukuzumi in the early stage. On Lap 10, as soon as the pit window opened, Oyo dived into the pit entry, hoping to gain some positions by undercutting. However, his tire change didn’t go smoothly, and he lost a precious few seconds at the stop. Oyu pushed hard and set the fastest times again and again after rejoining the race to recover it.

Sekiguchi made his pit stop on Lap 17. Reacting to it, Fukuzumi used the OverTake System to reduce the gap with Sekiguchi on his in-lap and came into the pit on the next lap. And the Dandelion Racing crew did a better job than Sekiguchi’s in terms of time spent for their tire change. Therefore, Fukuzumi went back to the track in 12th, leading among the drivers who had already done their stop.

While other drivers followed their path one after another, Nojiri, who had won two races this year and was leading the championship, opted for a long first stint. He failed to get into Q3 in the qualifying and started the race from the tenth grid, but his race pace was sometimes better than the leading drivers, so he had a 22-second gap with the de facto leader Fukuzumi on Lap 28.

It was apparent that it would be impossible to overcut Fukuzumi, considering the time required for a pit stop. However, Nojiri still found himself running in sixth when he resumed racing after the stop on Lap 41. On his out-lap, Miyata, who had already done the tire change, made a move on Nojiri at High Point Corner without any success.

After that, Nojiri started to close in on Makino, who was in the fifth, and the two drivers finally became tail-to-nose at High Point Corner again on Lap 45. Utilizing OTS, Nojiri tried to overtake Makino from inside at Umano-Se (which means horse’s back), the corner at the end of the back straight end. Still, the Dandelion Racing driver also used the same system to defend himself. Although their close battle lasted until the closing stage, Makino managed to keep his position.

Turning to the leaders, Fukuzumi maintained a consistent pace and controlled the gap with Oyu in the second until the end. Thus, he received the checkered flag first, marking his maiden victory in Super Formula in his third full season. By finishing in second, Oyu added a lot of championship points and moved up to the second in the point standings. Sekiguchi couldn’t make the most of his pole position but still secured his season’s first podium finish.