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Jamie Klein

Fuji Super Formula: Miyata leads Makino in Friday practice

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.

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 JPN Ritomo Miyata Kuo VANTELIN TEAM TOM’S 1'21.822  
2 5 JPN Tadasuke Makino DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION 1'21.979 0.157
3 4 FRA Sacha Fenestraz Kondo Racing 1'21.996 0.174
4 6 JPN Hiroki Otsu DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION 1'22.077 0.255
5 1 JPN Tomoki Nojiri Team Mugen 1'22.136 0.314
6 19 JPN Yuhi Sekiguchi Team Impul 1'22.139 0.317
7 15 JPN Ukyo Sasahara Team Mugen 1'22.151 0.329
8 3 JPN Kenta Yamashita Kondo Racing 1'22.164 0.342
9 20 JPN Ryo Hirakawa Team Impul 1'22.194 0.372
10 65 JPN Toshiki Oyu TCS Nakajima Racing 1'22.201 0.379
11 38 JPN Sho Tsuboi P.MU/CERUMO・INGING 1'22.281 0.459
12 53 JPN Ren Sato Team Goh 1'22.440 0.618
13 55 JPN Atsushi Miyake Team Goh 1'22.450 0.628
14 64 JPN Naoki Yamamoto TCS Nakajima Racing 1'22.543 0.721
15 12 JPN Nirei Fukuzumi ThreeBond Drago CORSE 1'22.589 0.767
16 36 FRA Giuliano Alesi Kuo VANTELIN TEAM TOM’S 1'22.594 0.772
17 18 JPN Yuji Kunimoto KCMG 1'22.600 0.778
18 50 JPN Nobuharu Matsushita B-Max Racing Team 1'22.790 0.968
19 7 JPN Kamui Kobayashi KCMG 1'22.896 1.074
20 14 JPN Kazuya Oshima docomo business ROOKIE 1'22.904 1.082
21 39 JPN Sena Sakaguchi P.MU/CERUMO・INGING 1'22.997 1.175
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