2022 SUPER FORMULA Round 6 Report

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The sixth round of the 2022 Super Formula Series took place at Fuji Speedway. The race was quite eventful, as there were accidents immediately after the start of the race leader’s retirement because of a loose wheel. And it ended with Ukyo Sasahara’s maiden win in the series from the 13th grid!

The forecast said bad weather was likely during the race weekend at Fuji. The rain remained from Friday, July 15th, when the teams were at work for installation, to Saturday the 16th when the free practice and the qualifying session were held. The practice commenced at 10:15 but had to be cut short by the red flag due to heavy rain. And the qualifying also had to be switched to a standard timed session for 30 minutes, instead of the usual Knock Out System, since it was expected that the rainy weather would continue.

The qualifying session began on time at 15:10. The rain was in a temporary lull at the time, but it was forecasted that the rain would be heavier later. So, all drivers went out to the track as soon as it was opened, led by Yuhi Sekiguchi (Carenex Team Impul), whose garage was the closest to the pit exit.

Helped by a clear vision without water spray, Sekiguchi immediately made his qualifying attempt and set 1’35”951 under the most favorable track conditions. And Tadasuke Makino (Docomo Team Dandelion Racing) followed him with 1’38”060.

Tomoki Nojiri (Team Mugen), who won four pole positions out of five races this year, was running behind Makino. He also tried to set a qualifying time on his first timed lap but went slightly off the track at Turn 1. And when he was exiting from the final corner, he encountered Naoki Yamamoto (TCS Nakajima Racing), who lost momentum as “the gear didn’t engage and came to neutral,” as Yamamoto explained later.

As a result, Nojiri couldn’t beat Makino’s time and was ranked fourth with 1’38″165, when Sho Tsuboi (P.Mu/Cerumo Inging) clocked 1’36″858. The Cerumo Inging driver’s time placed him second on the time sheet.

Then, soon after Nojiri bettered his time to 1’37”240 on his third timed lap and moved up to third, the session was red-flagged because Kamui Kobayashi (KCMG) crashed at GR Supra Corner. The qualifying was resumed about ten minutes later, but the rain had become heavier by then, which meant it was practically impossible for anyone to beat the leading drivers’ times.

With six minutes to go, Ritomo Miyata (Kuo Vantelin Team Tom’s) parked his car at the exit of Turn 13, as it had a mechanical issue, and the red flag was shown again. After removing Miyata’s halted car, the session was restarted, but then a heavy downpour came, and the drivers complained that they couldn’t see any flags at the post.

The race control considered the conditions dangerous and decided to stop the session by the red flag for the third time and terminated it immediately, even though one minute and 29 seconds were remaining. At that moment, Sekiguchi secured the pole position for the first time in almost a year since the last year’s Sugo round.

On Sunday, July 17th, the sky was still overcast, but there was no rain. The track surfaces were completely dry when the starting procedures began, and the air/track temperatures were at 27/37 degrees centigrade, which was the highest of the weekend.

There was drama even before the race started. When the cars returned to the grids after a formation lap, Nobuharu Matsushita (B-Max Racing Team), who was qualified in ninth, lost his car’s control in the process of warming up the tires and went off to the green area beside the track. Because of this incident, the original start was aborted, and the extra formation lap was required, which meant the race distance was reduced to 40 laps.

Sekiguchi, the pole sitter, led the field at the start. However, Tsuboi’s getaway wasn’t ideal, and Nojiri was able to get ahead of him at Turn 1. Behind them, however, Ryo Hirakawa (Carenex Team Impul), Toshiki Oyu (TCS Nakajima Racing), and Atsushi Miyake (Team Goh) tangled up. As a result, Hirakawa stopped his car beside the track and had to retire on the spot, while Miyake returned to the pit but couldn’t continue because of severe damage to the vehicle. The race steward later gave a drive-through penalty to Oyu for causing an avoidable collision.

The race was on with the remaining drivers. On Lap 2, the close fight for seventh between Sacha Fenestraz (Kondo Racing) and Yamamoto heated up. Using OverTake System, Yamamoto tried to pass Fenestraz at Turn 1 on the next lap, but the latter managed to defend.

The battle continued, and the Frenchman changed his line down to the approach of Turn 2 to block Yamamoto’s move. Reacting to this, Yamamoto steered his car to the opposite side, but he was already too close to do so. Consequently, the Nakajima Racing driver hit the rear end of Fenestraz’s car with his front wing, and the latter spun and crashed hard into the guard rails. The Safety Car was deployed to clear the wreck of Fenestraz’s car, and Yamamoto was given a drive-through penalty for causing this incident.

The Safety Car came in at the end of Lap 9, and racing resumed from the next lap. Sekiguchi made a flawless restart and enlarged the gap with Nojiri, who was in turn involved in a hot battle for the second with Tsuboi. Further behind them, Yamamoto and Sasahara (Team Mugen) began a head-to-head fight. Despite starting from the lowly 13th grid, Sasahara stayed away from the early accidents and improved his position. And he eventually won the battle with the ex-champion and moved into eighth.

On Lap 10, the window for the mandated tire change pit stop was open. Nojiri was the first to head to the pit lane, while Sekiguchi and Tsuboi opted to stay out. Therefore, the reigning champion wanted to push hard after the stop and maximize the advantage of his fresh tires, only to be blocked by traffic, so the gap between him and Sekiguchi remained at 42 or 43 seconds.

And when Nojiri finally got clean air and began to push, the Impul team called Sekiguchi in and sent him back on the track after finishing the tire change swiftly. As a result, he could stay ahead of Nojiri when he rejoined the race.

But Sekiguchi’s race ended in the most unexpected way. His car spun at the exit of Dunlop Corner, and he was stranded there due to suddenly losing his left-hand rear wheel. Then, of course, Nojiri passed by the spot and took over the effective lead from Sekiguchi.

At almost the same time, Tsuboi visited the pit, and when he was approaching the pit exit after the tire change, the Safety Car came out for the second time in this race. As all cars had to slow down, and no overtaking was allowed on the track, Tsuboi could keep his track position ahead of Nojiri after the stop, which meant Tsuboi seemed to become the race leader.

However, soon after the yellow flags and the SC board were shown, Sasahara headed to his pit to change tires. He was the interim leader when Tsuboi made his tire change one lap earlier and returned to the track still ahead of the Cerumo Inging driver, partly thanks to Team Mugen’s excellent job at the stop. To be precise, Tsuboi was still around the final corner’s exit when Sasahara was approaching Turn 1 from the pit exit.

Thus, when the field bunched up behind the Safety Car, the top three were now Sasahara, Tsuboi, and Nojiri. And the racing resumed with only ten laps to go.

By making a perfect restart, Sasahara swiftly built a safety lead against the drivers behind him and consistently drove the remaining ten laps to win the race. Tsuboi was obviously disappointed for missing out on a race win but still got on the podium for the first time this year by finishing second. Nojiri was under heavy pressure from Miyata, who made the stop on the same lap with Sasahara in the final laps but managed to fend him off to end the race in third. Team Mugen emerged to the top slot in the Team Rankings after this double podium finish.