Home News Fukuzumi tops first Super Formula session at Sugo, Sette Camara spins

Fukuzumi tops first Super Formula session at Sugo, Sette Camara spins

by Bethonie Waring

Photo: Super Formula

Dandelion Racing’s Nirei Fukuzumi topped a wet opening Super Formula session at Sportsland SUGO.

Fukuzumi had been towards the sharp end of the order throughout the hour-long session, but it was only with his last lap that he topped the times with a 1m18.726s.

After running with the pace early in the session, Fukuzumi dropped down the order as Okayama winner Sho Tsuboi and his INGING team-mate Hiroaki Ishiura swapped places at the top of the order.

Tsuboi was the first driver to set a time sub-1m20s on the wet track, and for a long time was the only driver to do so. It wasn’t until the closing stages of the session that Ishiura also dipped below the 1m20s mark.

The duo were absent from the late stream of flying laps as most of the grid made improvements, with Ishiura dropping to seventh and Tsuboi ending up 0.066s behind him.

One of those late improvements was Sacha Fenestraz, who briefly held the top spot as the first driver to set a sub-1m19s lap, before dropping back to second as Fukuzumi improved. He ended the session 0.217s behind Fukuzumi.

Team Impul’s points leader Rio Hirakawa was third quickest, ahead of TOM’S driver Kazuki Nakajima, Nakajima Racing’s Toshiki Oyu and Hirakawa’s team-mate Yuhi Sekiguchi.

Dandelion’s two-time champion Naoki Yamamoto and Team Mugen’s Tomoki Nojiri completed the top 10.

Sergio Sette Camara will make his category debut this weekend,  but his first run at Sugo was one to forget for the B-MAX Racing with Motopark driver.

The Red Bull Racing Formula 1 reserve driver span towards the middle of the session, bringing out the red flag so his car could be cleared. He managed to get back out, gaining valuable milage despite the challenging conditions, but his lap time was only enough for 18th.

Nick Cassidy and Kamui Kobayashi suffered even more limited running, and propped up the timesheet with laptimes way off the pace.

Session results
Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Nirei Fukuzumi Dandelion Racing 1m18.726s 27
2 Sacha Fenestraz Kondo Racing 1m18.943s +0.217s 28
3 Ryo Hirakawa Team Impul 1m18.986s +0.260s 23
4 Kazuki Nakajima TOM’S 1m19.008s +0.282s 24
5 Toshiki Oyu Nakajima Racing 1m19.024s +0.298s 28
6 Yuhi Sekighuchi Team Impul 1m19.192s +0.466s 25
7 Hiroaki Ishiura INGING 1m19.360s +0.634s 31
8 Sho Tsuboi INGING 1m19.426s +0.700s 29
9 Naoki Yamamoto Dandelion Racing 1m19.594s +0.868s 21
10 Tomoki Nojiri Team Mugen 1m19.929s +1.203s 22
11 Koudai Tsukakoshi ThreeBond w/ Drago Corse 1m20.262s +1.536s 21
12 Ukyo Sasahara Team Mugen 1m20.443s +1.717s 23
13 Kazuya Oshima ROOKIE Racing 1m20.477s +1.751s 23
14 Yuji Kunimoto KCMG 1m20.851s +2.125s 25
15 Tadasuke Makino Nakajima Racing 1m20.950s +2.224s 25
16 Kenta Yamashita Kondo Racing 1m21.219s +2.493s 26
17 Sergio Sette Camara B-MAX Racing w/ Motopark 1m21.936s +3.210s 22
18 Kamui Kobayashi KCMG 1m23.247s +4.521s 18
19 Nick Cassidy TOM’S 1m26.162s +7.436s 17