2022 SUPER FORMULA Round 5 Report

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The fifth round of the 2022 Super Formula series took place at SportsLand Sugo. In this meeting, which marked the end of the ten-race series’ first leg, Sacha Fenestraz (Kondo Racing) celebrated his maiden victory in the Super Formula in his third season in Japan.

The series made a long northbound trip from Autopolis in Kyushu, where it had the fourth round, to SportsLand Sugo in the Miyagi Prefecture. The weather bureau declared the beginning of the rainy season in the Tohoku district just before the race weekend began. However, the rain only came on Friday morning, when the teams were at work to set up, and it became hot over the weekend, akin to mid-summer days.

There was a freaky happening during the free practice session before the official qualifying. The timing system was accidentally shut down and reset towards the end of the session, and it had to be stopped by the red flag to recover it. This incident certainly affected the plan of drivers, who were going to do some qualifying simulations in the closing minutes. So this might be the first appearance of the evil spirit that some people say lives in Sugo!

The session resumed with ten minutes to go, which meant the running time was slightly extended. The championship leader, Tomoki Nojiri (Team Mugen), led the session, suggesting that he would be one of the favorites this time again.

Nojiri also dominated the qualifying session. He remained in the third place in Q1 with 1’05″015, following Tadasuke Makino (Docomo Team Dandelion Racing) and Yuji Kunimoto (KCMG). But Nojiri significantly improved his own time in the previous session and clocked 1’04″349, which was 0.357 seconds faster than Fenestraz, who came in second, and good enough to grab his fourth consecutive pole position.

Nojiri’s strength on the day was his speed on the second half of the lap. In Sector 3, which includes Uma-No-Se (means Horse’s back) Corner and SP Corner In and Out, he was the only driver who went through it in less than 13 seconds, and he was also the fastest in Q2 in Sector 4, which has the Final Corner and the steep up-hill leading to the pit straight.

“The car was one of the best I had in my whole race career so far,” said Nojiri at the post-qualifying press conference. Fenestraz secured the second grid for the second time in this series since the season opener in 2020 when he debuted in Super Formula. Hiroki Otsu (Docomo Team Dandelion Racing) sat on the third grid, which was his best starting grid of the season.

The air/track surface temperatures were 28/43 degrees centigrade when the race got underway. Fenestraz made a better start than the pole sitter and led the field at the first corner. Another remarkable move at the beginning was made by Toshiki Oyu (TCS Nakajima Racing), who rose to the third from the fifth grid.

Further behind them, Fenestraz’s teammate, Kenta Yamashita, tangled with Naoki Yamamoto (TCS Nakajima Racing) at Turn 1 and spun off. As Yamashita’s car stopped beside the track, the Safety Car was required even before the opening lap was completed.

The course marshals removed the halted car, and the race was on again from Lap 8. However, immediately after the restart, Nobuharu Matsushita (B-Max Racing Team) went off the track at Turn 1 and crashed into the tire barriers at a pretty high speed, which suggested that he had a brake issue.

Fortunately, Matsushita could walk away, but the accident called for another Safety Car period. During this SC period, the tire change window opened, and most drivers opted to make their stop when they completed Lap 10 still under the SC run.

Fenestraz remained in the lead among those early stoppers, but Oyu managed to get ahead of Nojiri when he returned to the track. On the other hand, Ritomo Miyata (Kuo Vantelin Team Tom’s), Ryo Hirakawa (Carenex Team Impul), and others chose to stay out. Starting from the fourth grid and running in fifth, Miyata was now leading the field by this call. Hirakawa had to settle for lowly 16th in the qualifying, but the leading drivers’ pit stops pushed him up to as high as third.

After clearing Matushita’s crashed car, the racing resumed on Lap 15. The interim leader, Miyata, started to push to build a gap with Fenestraz, who was still leading the race effectively. Thanks to a clear space ahead of him, Miyata increased the gap from nine seconds on Lap 17 to 10.2 seconds on the next lap, 13 seconds after that, and so on.

Miyata needed a more than 30-second cushion, considering the time required to change tires and spent on the pit lane. So he set fast lap times under 1’09” and steadily built up the margin against Fenestraz.

Due to the prolonged SC periods, which lasted for 15 laps in total, it became clear that the race would be cut short by the time limit rules before completing the prescribed race laps. And, when the remaining time became less than 14 minutes, Giuliano Alesi (Kuo Vantelin Team Tom’s), who also chose to stay out and was running in fourth at that time, steered to the pit entry. Hirakawa followed Alesi’s path on the next lap, and Yuhi Sekiguchi (Carenex Team Impul) did the same on Lap 41.

Every time a late stopper went into the pit for the tire change, Fenestraz automatically gained a position on the track. And when Miyata and Kamui Kobayashi (KCMG) came into their pit at the end of Lap 46, the Frenchman rounded out his comeback to the leader. Miyata was unfortunate at his stop, as the tire change didn’t go smoothly on the right-hand rear tire. He rejoined the race in sixth, but it was a tall order for him to recover even though he had a fresher set of tires than his rivals. Thus, he had to end the race in sixth.

Fenestraz cruised the remaining three laps and received the checkered flag first, scoring his first win in his third season in the Super Formula series. And this was the first victory in about three years for Kondo Racing since the 2019 season’s sixth round. So, the team manager, Masahiko Kondo, greeted him at Parc Ferme with a big smile.

Oyu finished the race in second to get on the podium for the first time this season, and Nojiri followed him in third. Makino was the best finisher among the late stoppers, and he was only 0.1 seconds behind Nojiri on the final lap. Then, Otsu came in the fifth, just ahead of Miyata.

This year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, Hirakawa, ended the race in seventh. After the tire change on Lap 29, he showed some excellent overtaking moves at Turn 1, helped by the fresh tires, and managed to finish in points.