2023 SUPER FORMULA Round 6 Report

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The sixth round of the 2023 Super Formula series was held at Fuji Speedway in Shizuoka Prefecture. Liam Lawson (Team Mugen) won the race after starting from the second grid.

This event marked the start of the remaining one-third of this year’s 9-race series. The meeting was titled “Super Formula Summer Festival,” and there was a lot of fan entertainment, including some for kids. Partly because they appealed to families, over 20 thousand motorsports fans came to Fuji Speedway on race day.

Prior to this sixth round, Vantelin Team Tom’s announced that Ukyo Sasahara replaced Giuliano Alesi as the no.36 car’s driver for the season’s remaining rounds. And on July 14th, Friday TGM Grand Prix stated that Hiroki Otsu stood in for Toshiki Oyu and would drive the no.53 car because of Otsu’s injury.

Although high temperatures above 30 degrees centigrade were expected for the race week, the sky was overcast throughout the qualifying day, July 15th, Saturday, and the air temperature stayed around 25 degrees. In the free practice session before the qualifying, Tadasuke Makino (Docomo Team Dandelion Racing) filled the top slot of the timing sheet, and Lawson and Ren Sato (TCS Nakajima Racing) followed.

The result meant that the top three drivers were equipped with the engines from Honda, and the fastest Toyota engine user in the practice was Kenta Yamashita (Kondo Racing) in fourth. However, as the gap from Makino to Yuhi Sekiguchi (Itochu Enex Team Impul), who ended the session on the 17th, was less than a second, many expected a very tight qualifying session, in which a slight time gap would make a big difference in qualifying positions.

When the qualifying session began, the air/track temperatures were at 25/29 degrees. If the sky is clear, those temperatures normally vary every second. But, on this occasion, thick clouds blocked the sunlight, and a moderate wind blew during the session, resulting in very consistent temperature conditions until the end of Q2, which was quite uncommon.

In Group A of Q1, Lawson led the top six and was followed by Otsu, Naoki Yamamoto (TCS Nakajima Racing), Makino, Nirei Fukuzumi (ThreeBond Racing), and Sena Sakaguchi (P.Mu/Cerumo Inging). They were going to fight for the pole position in Q2 from the group.

In Group B, a Super Formula rookie, Kakunoshin Ohta (Docomo Team Dandelion Racing), was the fastest, beating the reigning champion, Tomoki Nojiri (Team Mugen), by 0.3 seconds. Ritomo Miyata (Vantelin Team Tom’s), Sato, and Yamashita came after them, and Sho Tsuboi rounded out the group’s top six, who moved on to Q2.

Miyata was the early leader of the Q2 session, and then Lawson set his best time, which was faster than Miyata’s. But eventually, Makino surpassed the Team Mugen driver by 0.2 seconds and won his Super Formula career’s second pole position. You might know that he claimed his first pole position in his debut race in the series more than four years ago!

Lawson secured the second grid, repeating his best starting position in the fourth round at Autopolis. Makino’s teammate, Ohta, came in third, which was his best qualifying result so far.

On July 16th, Sunday, the clouds stayed over Fuji Speedway, and the temperature conditions during the free practice in the morning were precisely the same as those in Saturday’s qualifying.

Most drivers used the practice session to check their car’s speed in a long run, and Kazuto Kotaka (Kondo Racing) set the fastest time, with Ryo Hirakawa (Itochu Enex Team Impul) ranked second. While they would start the race from the lower grids, as Kotaka failed to get through to Q2 due to a track limit violation, and Hirakawa chose a wrong setup for the qualifying, their speed in the long run showed potential for some upsets.

With a crowd of fans filling up the grandstand, the tension rose among the drivers and team members on the grids just before the 41-lap race. Makino led the field through Turn 1, and Lawson kept the position where he started. But Ohta’s getaway could have been better, so Yamamoto, starting from the sixth grid, took over the place following the top two.

Makino retained about a one-second gap with Lawson for a while, so there was no action at the front. On the other hand, there were some hot battles behind them. Fighting for fourth, Miyata brilliantly overtook Sato at Coca-Cola Corner, but Sato regained his position at TGR Corner on the next lap. Sato then came close to his teammate, Yamamoto, and moved up to third by passing him at the same place.

When they completed Lap 10 and the pit stop window for tire change opened, Sato was the first to head to the pit entry, so Miyata and Ohta, who were in fifth and sixth, did it on the same lap. So they chose the earliest stop strategy.

Lawson reacted to them and made the pit stop, seemingly aiming to undercut the race leader. The move forced Makino to counteract the Kiwi’s intention and change the tire on the next lap. Makino returned to the track just ahead of Lawson, so the latter’s undercutting seemed to fail. But Lawson managed to pass Makino at Coca-Cola Corner, making the most of his properly warmed tires and took over the lead among the early stoppers.

As a majority of drivers opted for early stops, Yamamoto became the interim race leader on Lap 13. He had planned to stay out longer, as he reasoned, “Some would choose the earliest stop, and some others would be forced to react to it.” So his prediction was correct, and he could push harder with clear space ahead of him. But his overcutting strategy wasn’t necessarily the way to go.

Yamamoto changed his tires at the end of Lap 24 and found himself running in 11th and seventh among the drivers, who had already done their stops. Yamamoto’s move gave Hirakawa the position of interim leader. The Team Impul driver also adopted the late stop strategy and made the most of open space without traffic.

On Lap 30, Hirakawa visited his pit and rejoined in eighth, just behind Yamamoto. At this point, there was no late stopper running ahead of Lawson. He already had about a 3-second lead against Makino in second, and the gap gradually increased.

As was the case in the early stage of the race, the top two looked just steady-going, but another round of fierce battles began behind them. Notably, the fight for sixth between two skillful drivers, Nojiri and Yamamoto, was a great show. And Hirakawa’s overtaking was also exciting to watch for the fans at the grandstand, as he had a fresher set of tires than anyone else because of his late-stop strategy.

The top two’s race was quiet for the remaining laps, and Lawson crossed the finish line first to mark his third win of the season. So Makino had to settle for second place, despite starting from the pole position, which meant chances for his maiden victory were high. Miyata came in third and got to the last place on the podium, beating Sato, who overtook him in the early stage after the tire change.

Lawson earned big points by winning this race, but Miyata stayed at the top of the point standings by only one point. There is a large spread, which is more than 20 points, between them and Nojiri in third, and Makino came up to fifth by scoring back-to-back podium finishes in the previous Sugo round and this race at Fuji.