2023 SUPER FORMULA Round 4 Report

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The fourth round of the 2023 Super Formula series took place at Autopolis in the Oita Prefecture. Liam Lawson (Team Mugen) won the race after starting from the second grid in his first appearance at the race track.

The 9-race top single-seater series made its annual visit to Kyushu for this round. Autopolis is located on a hillside of Mt. Aso, and the race meetings here have often been affected by rain or dense fog. However, the qualifying day and the race day were favored by fine weather this weekend, and it was pretty warm and comfortable.

On May 19th, Friday, the teams had already arrived at the circuit and were doing their preparation work. Then, there was a report that Tomoki Nojiri (Team Mugen) had to withdraw from the race. Feeling unwell after arriving in Kyushu, he saw a doctor and was diagnosed with pneumothorax. So Team Mugen hastily called in Hiroki Otsu as the substitute for Nojiri. Otsu appeared at the circuit on Saturday morning and drove Nojiri’s car in the free practice session after a quick seat fitting.

Thus, the fourth round began without the defending champion. The qualifying session on May 20th, Saturday, was run on the usual knock-out format, and Ritomo Miyata (Vantelin Team Tom’s), who marked his maiden Super Formula victory in the previous Suzuka round, dominated Group A of Q1. Lawson, Tadasuke Makino (Docomo Team Dandelion Racing), Sena Sakaguchi (P.Mu/Cerumo Inging), Ryo Hirakawa (Itochu Enex Team Impul), and Kazuto Kotaka (Kondo Racing) also survived the fight for Q2 in this group.

The drivers in Group B faced a difficult session. Because Otsu, Nojiri’s stand-in on short notice, crashed his car, it was interrupted by the red flag when most of them were about to make their qualifying attempts. The top six drivers of this group, who got through to Q2, were Sho Tsuboi (P.Mu/Cerumo Inging), Kenta Yamashita (Kondo Racing), Yuhi Sekiguchi (Itochu Enex Team Impul), Nobuharu Matsushita (B-Max Racing Team), Nirei Fukuzumi (Threebond Racing), and Ren Sato (TCS Nakajima Racing).

Tsuboi was the fastest driver in Q2, and he secured his first Super Formula pole position. P. Mu/Cerumo Inging showed a superb team performance, as Sakaguchi took the third grid. These two teammates were split by Lawson, who claimed the second grid, which was remarkable because the Super Formula rookie had never driven at this race track before this weekend. Then the top Q1 qualifier in Group A, Miyata, came in fourth, and Fukuzumi’s fifth was the best-ever qualifying result for the Threebond Racing team.

Kotaka went out for his qualifying attempt as the last one to do so and crashed in the same spot where Otsu did. As he had not set any proper lap time, he ended the Q2 session in the last and 12th slots. His team worked overnight to repair the car, and Kotaka could join the free practice on Sunday morning.

The sky over the circuit was clear on the race day. The air/track temperatures just before the race started were 23/38 degrees centigrade, but many felt even hotter than the thermometer said because they received scorching sunlight.

The formation lap began at three o’clock p.m., and the 41-lap race got underway promptly. The pole sitter, Tsuboi, and Sakaguchi, from the third grid, made perfect starts, and they formed the Cerumo Inging team’s one-two when the field went into the first corner. Lawson was just behind them and was followed by Miyata, Fukuzumi, and Yamashita, who started from the sixth grid.

There was no position change between the leaders in the early laps, and the gaps between Tsuboi, Sakaguchi, and Lawson remained largely stable. But the latter two drivers’ pace dropped slightly after Lap 6, so Tsuboi’s lead grew by inches. When the tire change window opened on Lap 10, Tsuboi was 2.8 seconds ahead of Sakaguchi, and the gap increased lap by lap.

After trying in vain to catch up with Sakaguchi, Lawson decided to try an undercutting. So he headed to the pit box at the end of Lap 13 and rejoined the race as the leader among the early stoppers. Sakaguchi reacted to this and made his tire change on the next lap, but Lawson got ahead of him at Turn 1 as his out-lap was devastatingly fast, so his strategy saw success. The Kiwi continued to push to reduce the gap with his next target, Tsuboi.

Tsuboi, who had yet to make his mandatory stop, had a 31 second cushion against Lawson at the end of Lap15. The Kiwi tried hard to shorten the gap, utilizing his fresher tires, but then he hit traffic from Lap 17 to 19 instead, increasing Tsuboi’s lead. So the situation looked to help the Cerumo Inging driver, but Lawson never gave up and overtook the slower cars one after another to close in on Tsuboi steadily.

Lawson’s battles against the late stoppers meant slower lap times. But he finally found clear space ahead of him after passing Kotaka, who just came out from the pit, on Lap 21 and started to pick up his pace. Three laps later, Tsuboi’s lead became less than 30 seconds, and he knew it was time to make a stop.

Tsuboi’s pit stop was perfect, but Lawson swept past him on the pit straight when he arrived at the pit exit. So now the Team Mugen driver was the effective race leader, while there were still a few drivers yet to change tires ahead of him.

They were Miyata, who led the group, Yamashita, Hirakawa, and Sekiguchi. Then, on Lap 29, Toshiki Oyu (TGM Grand Prix) and Sakaguchi collided at the end of Jet Coaster Straight, and Oyu’s car halted on the gravel bed after going off the track.

The incident required the Safety Car to come out. The four drivers mentioned above jumped at the opportunity and headed to their pit boxes. Now Lawson became the visible race leader, followed by Tsuboi. Miyata and Yamashita found themselves running in third and fourth just behind Tsuboi after their pit stops, while Hirakawa had Makino and Sato in between Yamashita and him. But the Team Impul driver made the most of his fresher tires after the Safety Car period ended on Lap 34 and took only two laps to move up to fifth.

Meanwhile, Lawson gradually pulled away from the rest of the field after making a good restart. Tsuboi, in contrast, was now under pressure from Miyata, who had just received the new set of tires. They became side-by-side on Lap 37 on Jet Coaster Straight, and Tsuboi narrowly fended off Miyake’s attack. But, on the next lap, the latter used OverTaking System and managed to squeeze his car into the inside of Tsuboi. Miyata’s move was successful, and now he was running in second with the Team Impul driver behind him in third. For the remaining three laps, Tsuboi was involved in the three-way fight for the last place on the podium with Yamashita and Hirakawa, which was quite exciting until the end.

These battles behind Lawson certainly assisted him. Miyata pushed hard for the last three laps after moving up to second, but the checkered flag fell when he cut the gap to merely 1.2 seconds. Thus, Lawson attained his second win of the season and became the new championship leader. And Miyata also came up to second in the point standings. Tsuboi defended his position in the late battle with Yamashita and Hirakawa to finish in third, which pushed him up to third in the championship, getting ahead of absentee Nojiri.