2022 SUPER FORMULA Round 2 Report

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As was the case in Round 1 on Saturday, the area around Fuji Speedway was favored by fine weather and strong sunshine on April 10th, Sunday.

The drivers of Group A in Q1 went on the track at 10:25 a.m. In this group, one of the rookies this year, Atsushi Miyake (TEAM GOH), got the top slot. As for Group B, Sacha Fenestraz (KONDO RACING) was the fastest qualifier, but there was a last-minute drama here.

Many drivers set their best time on the final lap, and Ren Sato (TEAM GOH) was the last one who put a valid lap time in the session. His time was good enough to be ranked in the sixth, the last place to survive to Q2, Tadasuke Makino (DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING), who was sixth until then, was bumped out helplessly.

While the younger drivers stood out in Q1, the veterans showed their talent in Q2 when the top 12 drivers were allowed to fight for the pole position.

Tomoki Nojiri (TEAM MUGEN) was the first to make a qualifying attempt, but he went over the track limit at Coca-Cola Corner. Predicting the lap time would be deleted for the violation, he aborted the attempt and slowed down to prepare for his second attack.

He began the first attempt, calculating the tires’ warm-up, traffic on the track, and everything, so aborting it meant there would be some compromise on the second one. However, last year’s title winner was faster than anyone in the sector 1 of the second run and set 1’21″522 at the finish line. Thus, he got the pole position, recovering his mistake on the first attack.

And Nojiri executed a nearly perfect race in the afternoon. He made a flawless start from the pole position and led the field in style. There was the Safety Car period from Lap 2 to 5, but his restart was good enough to keep the lead, and the gap with Ritomo Miyata (Kuo VANTELIN TEAM TOM’S), who was in second, soon grew to more than one second.

At the end of Lap 22, Ryo Hirakawa (carenex TEAM IMPUL) came into the pit as the first driver to do so in the top three. Helped by his team’s splendid job, he rejoined the race without losing any position. Two laps later, Miyata made a stop and went back to the track just ahead of Hirakawa, but the Team Tom’s driver couldn’t resist Hirakawa’s attack with his cold tires. As a result, the Team Impul driver moved up to the effective second by overtaking Miyata at Toyopet 100R Corner.

The race leader, Nojiri, visited his pit on Lap 25. While the pit stop time was slightly longer than Hirakawa’s, he still had a margin almost equal to a half-length of the pit straight when he resumed racing. Hirakawa pushed hard to catch up to him while the leader’s tires were still cold, but the gap was too large to reduce to zero quickly.

When Nojiri was completing his out-lap, his tires were properly warmed up, and he could pick up the pace again. And on Lap 30, when the last driver served his tire change, Nojiri emerged on the top of the leader board again.

All he had to do for the remaining 11 laps was to control the distance to Hirakawa, and the reigning champion commandingly secured his first win of the season. From the second-place finisher’s point of view, it was the reversal of the ending of Round 1 the day before.

Miyata finished third, which was his personal best result in Super Formula. He was smiling on the podium, even though he lost second place to Hirakawa. “Finally, I made an ‘average’ start of the race. It has been an issue for me since the last season. So, I am sure I am making progress,” said Miyata.