2023 SUPER FORMULA Round 3 Report

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The third round of the 2023 Super Formula championship took place at Suzuka Circuit. The surprise winner was Ritomo Miyata, who started from the 12th grid and exploited his luck with the Safety Car period in the race’s second half. It was Miyata’s maiden victory in his third Super Formula season.

For the last two weekends, major Japanese motor racing events were hit by bad weather. But it was fine this weekend at Suzuka with a clear blue sky over the track.

The qualifying session was run in the usual knock-out format. After leading the free practice in the morning, Toshiki Oyu kept his momentum and set the fastest time in Group A of Q1. The gap between him and the rest of the field was more than 0.1 seconds. The best in Group B was Sho Tsuboi, who ended his podium finish draught in the second round. He was followed by Giuliano Alesi, one of the Toyota engine users, as with Tsuboi. But Tomoki Nojiri, the reigning champion and a leading Honda engine user, struggled somehow and failed to clear the bar to Q2 by five-hundredths of a second.

Since two drivers’ qualifying times in Group B were deleted for exceeding the track limit on those laps, Nojiri could join the battle in Q2. However, his unexpected struggle created a stir in the crowd at the track, as he was the pole sitter in the last three Super Formula events at Suzuka.

Oyu took the initiative in the fight for the pole position in Q2 by setting a stunning lap time under 1’36” and took a wait-and-see attitude about what the other drivers would do. Miyata, Liam Lawson, and Ren Sato crossed the control line one after another and improved their respetive qualifying time, but no one could surpass Oyu’s 1’35″792. So only the name at the second slot was changed.

Then Nojiri attracted everybody’s attention because his sector times in the qualifying lap’s first half were better than Oyu’s. However, he ended the lap with a time of 1’35″906, which meant he missed out a potential fourth consecutive pole position at Suzuka by 0.114 seconds even though he still completed the lap in under 1’36”.

Eventually, Nojiri had to settle for the third grid, as Tsuboi exceeded his time after that, and Oyu secured his second pole position in his Super Formula career.

On the race day, the sky was clear with almost no clouds, and the brilliant sunshine poured down onto the track. Initially, it was to be a 31-lap race, but it was reduced to 30 laps because the start had to be aborted, and an additional formation lap was required, as Tadasuke Makino on the fifth grid stalled at the end of the first formation lap.

Oyu made a great getaway at the start, and Tsuboi and Nojiri followed, remaining in the positions where they started. But it didn’t last long, as Nojiri couldn’t keep up with the leaders’ pace and had to give way to Lawson, who came up quickly from the eighth grid. Then the reigning champion stepped down further as Kenta Yamashita overtook him.

Having passed his teammate, Lawson tried to undercut the leaders as he had done in the first round, which he won. Therefore, when the pit lane opened on Lap 10, he was the first to come in for the tire change, and his pace on the out-lap was tremendously fast.

Tsuboi reacted to Lawson’s move and visited the pit on the next lap to block the Kiwi’s plan. And the Cerumo/Inging driver narrowly managed to stay ahead of Lawson when he rejoined the race.

Lawson’s tires were warm enough after completing a full lap, and he began to attack Tsuboi immediately. They became abreast each other at Turn 2 and then tail-to-nose from S-Shape Corners, Reverse Bank, and Spoon Curve. But Tsuboi fought desperately and fended off Lawson’s move as his tires reached working temperatures.

Thus, Tsuboi hung on to the leading position among the drivers who already did their pit stops. His next mission was to reduce the gap with Oyu. While the TGM Grand Prix driver pushed hard to increase or at least keep the gap because he needed it to stay in the lead after his pit stop, Tsuboi, with a fresh set of tires, drove at an even higher pace, setting the fastest lap at the time on Lap 13. So Oyu’s margin just kept shrinking little by little.

Oyu finally headed to the pit lane at the end of Lap 19, but it became apparent then that Tsuboi and Lawson would get ahead of him during the stop. Just as it had been foreseen, Oyu found himself behind Lawson after the tire change and saw Nojiri rapidly closing up on him. Nojiri had already done his pit stop on the same lap as Tsuboi.

Oyu tried to defend his position, but his cold tires didn’t help. Unfortunately, he and Nojiri collided at S-Shape Corners and went off the track, both resulting in crashing into the tire barriers. Who expected the pole sitter and the reigning champion would hit each other and retire… And the incident called for the Safety Car intervention.

This was a heaven-sent opportunity for Miyata and Ryo Hirakawa. Since they hadn’t changed their tires yet, they could do it under the Safety Car period when other cars on the track have to reduce their pace significantly. As a result, Miyata and Hirakawa joined the field after their stops in third and fourth, respectively, just behind Tsuboi and Lawson, which was a great leap forward for them.

The Safety Car came in on Lap 24, and the racing resumed. Whereas the early stoppers, Tsuboi and Lawson, had already used their tires for more than ten laps, Miyata’s and Hirakawa’s tires were almost new, so the latter two drivers had a clear advantage. Miyata overtook Lawson on Lap 26, and the fight for the first between Tsuboi and Miyata, along with the battle for the third between Lawson and Hirakawa, heated up for the remaining five laps.

And on Lap 29 of the 30-lap race, Miyata closed in on the race leader and got ahead of him at Turn 1 daringly from the outside. Behind him, Hirakawa also overtook Lawson at Turn 2 on the same lap. Therefore, they entered the final lap in the order of Miyata, Tsuboi, Hirakawa, and Lawson.

Miyata even pulled away from Tsuboi on the final lap and received the checkered flag first. It was his maiden victory in his third Super Formula season. Tsuboi might be disappointed by finishing the race he could have won in second, but two consecutive podium finishes were a consolation for him. By finishing in third, Hirakawa got on the podium two times out of three rounds this season.