Miyata, who goes into his second season at TOM’S, set the best time of 1m21.822s at the tail end of the 90-minute session with around a minute left on the clock, outpacing nearest rival Tadasuke Makino by 0.157 seconds.
That time was around ninth tenths off the pace set by Sacha Fenestraz in last month’s pre-season test at Fuji, albeit the test was held in much cooler conditions.
- Motorsport.tv is showing every race of the Super Formula season (available worldwide except Japan). Click here for further information.
Kondo Racing man Fenestraz was third-fastest on this occasion, joining Miyata and Dandelion driver Makino in breaching the 1m22s barrier at the end of the session but falling short of Miyata’s benchmark by 0.174s.
Hiroki Otsu made it two Dandelion cars in the top four, ahead of reigning champion Tomoki Nojiri (Team Mugen) in fifth place and Yuhi Sekiguchi (Impul).
Fenestraz’s Kondo teammate Kenta Yamashita was in a minority of drivers not to improve on his laptime in the closing stages of the session, returning to the pits early and ending up eighth behind Nojiri’s new Mugen teammate Ukyo Sasahara.
Toyota’s new FIA World Endurance Championship driver Ryo Hirakawa (Impul) and Toshiki Oyu (Nakajima Racing) rounded out a top 10 split by less than four tenths.
Inging’s Sho Tsuboi, who topped both days of the opening pre-season test at Suzuka and was second to Fenestraz in the Fuji test, was only 11th-fastest, 0.459s off the pace.
However, Tsuboi was one of several drivers to be caught out by a yellow flag at the very end of the session caused by a spin for Kazuya Oshima (Rookie Racing).
Top rookie was Team Goh’s newly-recruited Red Bull junior driver Ren Sato in 12th place, just ahead of teammate Atsushi Miyake.
Giuliano Alesi ended up 16th and 0.772s behind TOM’S teammate Miyata, albeit he was another driver not to improve on his best lap at the end of the session.
Fuji Super Formula - Practice results:
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 37 |
 Ritomo Miyata | Kuo VANTELIN TEAM TOM’S | 1'21.822 | |
| 2 | 5 |
Tadasuke Makino | DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION | 1'21.979 | 0.157 |
| 3 | 4 |
 Sacha Fenestraz | Kondo Racing | 1'21.996 | 0.174 |
| 4 | 6 |
Hiroki Otsu | DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION | 1'22.077 | 0.255 |
| 5 | 1 |
Tomoki Nojiri | Team Mugen | 1'22.136 | 0.314 |
| 6 | 19 |
Yuhi Sekiguchi | Team Impul | 1'22.139 | 0.317 |
| 7 | 15 |
Ukyo Sasahara | Team Mugen | 1'22.151 | 0.329 |
| 8 | 3 |
Kenta Yamashita | Kondo Racing | 1'22.164 | 0.342 |
| 9 | 20 |
Ryo Hirakawa | Team Impul | 1'22.194 | 0.372 |
| 10 | 65 |
Toshiki Oyu | TCS Nakajima Racing | 1'22.201 | 0.379 |
| 11 | 38 |
Sho Tsuboi | P.MU/CERUMO･INGING | 1'22.281 | 0.459 |
| 12 | 53 |
Ren Sato | Team Goh | 1'22.440 | 0.618 |
| 13 | 55 |
Atsushi Miyake | Team Goh | 1'22.450 | 0.628 |
| 14 | 64 |
Naoki Yamamoto | TCS Nakajima Racing | 1'22.543 | 0.721 |
| 15 | 12 |
Nirei Fukuzumi | ThreeBond Drago CORSE | 1'22.589 | 0.767 |
| 16 | 36 |
Giuliano Alesi | Kuo VANTELIN TEAM TOM’S | 1'22.594 | 0.772 |
| 17 | 18 |
Yuji Kunimoto | KCMG | 1'22.600 | 0.778 |
| 18 | 50 |
Nobuharu Matsushita | B-Max Racing Team | 1'22.790 | 0.968 |
| 19 | 7 |
Kamui Kobayashi | KCMG | 1'22.896 | 1.074 |
| 20 | 14 |
Kazuya Oshima | docomo business ROOKIE | 1'22.904 | 1.082 |
| 21 | 39 |
Sena Sakaguchi | P.MU/CERUMO･INGING | 1'22.997 | 1.175 |
