Super Formula Fuji: Tsuboi victory applies pressure on points leader Nojiri

Sho Tsuboi scored his second win of the Super Formula season in Saturday’s opener at Fuji Speedway to close to within half a point of championship leader Tomoki Nojiri.

TOM’S driver Tsuboi surged from seventh on the grid to second in the opening three laps of the race to put himself in a strong position to challenge early leader Nojiri.

The top two circulated in close quarters for the opening stint, with Tsuboi making a brief challenge on Nojiri before settling back behind his Mugen championship rival until the two leaders made their mandatory pitstops at mid-distance.

It was Nojiri who was first to pull the trigger on lap 21 of 41, with Tsuboi coming in the following lap and then holding off Nojiri on his out lap on cold tyres.

Both drivers slipped behind early stoppers Ayumu Iwasa and Kakunoshin Ota, with Nojiri also falling victim to Kamui Kobayashi, who was another driver to clear his tyre change early.

With the benefit of his fresh rubber, Tsuboi caught and passed Dandelion driver Ota on lap 27, and then proceeded to close down Iwasa’s four-second lead in short order.

Ayumu Iwasa, TEAM MUGEN

Photo by: Masahide Kamio

Arriving on Iwasa’s tail on lap 31, Tsuboi cleared the Red Bull junior on the following lap to take a lead he would never lose, opening up a 4.4-second gap to take his second win of the season and the fourth of his Super Formula career.

Mugen’s Iwasa held on for his third runner-up spot of the season, while Kobayashi passed a struggling Ota to claim his first podium finish since 2019 in third place.

As Ota faded, Tadasuke Makino moved up to fourth in the other Dandelion car, having left his pit stop later, limiting the damage after a tough qualifying session left him starting ninth.

Nirei Fukuzumi came home fifth in the second KCMG car after a slow start from pole left him in the same position at the end of the opening lap, passing Nojiri on the very final lap.

Nojiri’s sixth-place finish means his championship advantage over new nearest rival Tsuboi is cut to just half a point, with Makino only three points behind with three races left.

Ota finally slipped to ninth behind Nakajima Racing pair Ren Sato and Naoki Yamamoto.

Kenta Yamashita took the final point for Kondo Racing, albeit holding on by just two tenths of a second against Impul super-sub Nyck de Vries at the finish.

De Vries recovered from a lowly 18th-place grid slot to finish two places ahead of Impul teammate Yuji Kunimoto.

Both Toshiki Oyu (Inging) and Iori Kimura (B-Max Racing) dropped out with mechanical issues, while Sena Sakaguchi (Inging) was a lap down after stalling on the grid.

Hiroki Otsu’s TGM Grand Prix car was wheeled into the garage before the start, but he rejoined the race and finished a lap down behind Sakaguchi.