Home News Yuhi Sekiguchi fastest in test for Super Formula season opener

Yuhi Sekiguchi fastest in test for Super Formula season opener

by Ida Wood

Team Impul’s Yuhi Sekiguchi set the pace in Super Formula’s pre-event test at Twin Ring Motegi on Friday.

The 32-year-old, who has won six SF races since debuting in the series in 2016, was narrowly faster than INGING’s Hiroaki Ishiura in the two-hour session and set his best time at the very end of the test.

Behind the Toyota-powered pair was Dandelion Racing’s Naoki Yamamoto, with the top three covered by just 0.075 seconds.

Yamamoto’s team-mate Nirei Fukuzumi had gone to the top of the times with a few minutes to go, but with many going for late improvements he was shuffled down to fifth, 0.186s behind Sekiguchi.

Tomoki Nojiri slipped between the two Dandelion drivers in fourth place for Team Mugen, and had a 1.375s advantage over his debuting team-mate Ukyo Sasahara who is standing in for Red Bull junior Juri Vips.

Kazuki Nakajima beat reigning champion TOM’S team-mate Nick Cassidy and was sixth fastest, with Cassidy in ninth place and just under half a second slower than Sekiguchi.

The rookies mainly had a difficult session, with Nakajima Racing’s Toshiki Oyu causing a red flag but running within a second of the pace in 13th, while Sacha Fenestraz (Kondo Racing), Tatiana Calderon (ThreeBond Racing with Drago Corse) and Teppei Natori (B-MAX Racing with Motopark) were the three slowest drivers in the session despite setting the most laps.

It was Honda junior Natori’s first ever running in the Dallara SF-19 car, having been signed up at the last minute to replace Red Bull’s Formula 1 reserve driver Sergio Sette Camara due to the Brazilian being unable to make it to Japan.

 

Test results
Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Yuhi Sekiguchi Team Impul 1m33.717s 27
2 Hiroaki Ishiura INGING 1m33.729s +0.012s 30
3 Naoki Yamamoto Dandelion Racing 1m33.792s +0.075s 25
4 Tomoki Nojiri Team Mugen 1m33.871s +0.154s 31
5 Nirei Fukuzumi Dandelion Racing 1m33.903s +0.186s 33
6 Kazuki Nakajima TOM’S 1m34.018s +0.301s 33
7 Ryo Hirakawa Team Impul 1m34.167s +0.450s 23
8 Kamui Kobayashi KCMG 1m34.169s +0.452s 31
9 Nick Cassidy TOM’S 1m34.209s +0.492s 33
10 Kenta Yamashita Kondo Racing 1m34.264s +0.547s 36
11 Tadasuke Makino Nakajima Racing 1m34.442s +0.725s 28
12 Sho Tsuboi INGING 1m34.470s +0.753s 34
13 Toshiki Oyu Nakajima Racing 1m34.472s +0.755s 33
14 Yuji Kunimoto KCMG 1m34.713s +0.996s 31
15 Kazuya Oshima ROOKIE Racing 1m35.047s +1.330s 27
16 Ukyo Sasahara Team Mugen 1m35.246s +1.529s 35
17 Sacha Fenestraz Kondo Racing 1m35.274s +1.557s 41
18 Tatiana Calderon ThreeBond w/ Drago Corse 1m35.406s +1.689s 39
19 Teppei Natori B-MAX Racing w/ Motopark 1m35.908s +2.191s 39