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Autosport

Super Formula Suzuka: Nojiri wins season-opener, Pourchaire 18th on debut

Mugen driver Nojiri made a perfect start from third on the grid to leap ahead of surprise poleman Sena Sakaguchi and Kakunoshin Ota at the first corner, and from there his position was never truly threatened over the course of the 31-lap race.

Kenta Yamashita (Kondo Racing) and Naoki Yamamoto (Nakajima Racing) completed the podium, both gaining ground by clearing their mandatory pitstops early.

Both front-row starters lost positions off the start, as Inging’s Sakaguchi slipped to third behind both Nojiri and a fast-starting Ren Sato (Nakajima), and Ota plummeted from second to seventh.

Surviving an early safety car restart with his lead intact, Nojiri left his stop until lap 13, having extended a lead of nearly three seconds over Sato, resuming ahead of both Yamashita and Yamamoto, who stopped on lap 11 and 10 respectively after the pit window opened.

Sato left his stop until lap 15, but found himself jumped not only by Yamashita and Yamamoto but also Dandelion Racing man Ota and KCMG’s Nirei Fukuzumi.

From there, the order at the front remained unchanged as Nojiri eased to a 12th career victory by 1.855s from Yamashita, while Yamamoto recorded his best finish in a dry race since 2020 on his comeback race from the neck injuries that ruled him out of last year's finale.

Ota recovered from his poor start to finish fourth ahead of Sato and Fukuzumi, making his debut as a Toyota driver after his off-season switch from Honda.

Naoki Yamamoto, PONOS NAKAJIMA RACING (Photo by: Masahide Kamio)

Sakaguchi left his pitstop until lap 19 and slipped to seventh as a result, while the points scorers were completed by last-minute TGM Grand Prix signing Nobuharu Matsushita, Ayumu Iwasa (Mugen) and Tadasuke Makino (Dandelion).

Iwasa finished as top rookie, having been the last to stop on lap 26, initially dropping to 10th before passing Makino around the outside at Spoon once his tyres were up to temperature.

Of the other newcomers, Iori Kimura was 12th for B-Max Racing behind a struggling Sho Tsuboi (TOM’S), Juju Noda (TGM) was 17th and Theo Pourchaire (Team Impul) was 18th on a miserable Super Formula debut for the reigning Formula 2 champion.

That followed an off at Turn 7 (formerly Dunlop Curve) for the French driver that required his front wing to be changed during his pitstop.

Pourchaire’s teammate Yuji Kunimoto and Kazuto Kotaka (Kondo) were both eliminated in a clash at the Esses on lap 2, which brought out the safety car, while Kamui Kobayashi (KCMG) dropped out with a loose wheel late on.

Super Formula Suzuka - Race results:

 
   
1
 - 
3
   
   
1
 - 
2
   
Cla Driver # Laps Time Interval km/h Pits Points Retirement
1 Japan T. Nojiri Team Mugen 16 31

57'14.911

      20  
2 Japan K. Yamashita Kondo Racing 3 31

+1.855

57'16.766

1.855     15  
3 Japan N. Yamamoto PONOS Nakajima Racing 64 31

+3.091

57'18.002

1.236     11  
4 Japan K. Ohta Dandelion Racing 6 31

+3.845

57'18.756

0.754     8  
5 Japan R. Sato PONOS Nakajima Racing 65 31

+13.705

57'28.616

9.860     6  
6 Japan N. Fukuzumi Team KCMG 8 31

+15.716

57'30.627

2.011     5  
7 Japan S. Sakaguchi Vertex Partners Cerumo - INGING 38 31

+16.833

57'31.744

1.117     4  
8 Japan N. Matsushita TGM Grand Prix 55 31

+17.836

57'32.747

1.003     3  
9 Japan A. Iwasa Team Mugen 15 31

+18.425

57'33.336

0.589     2  
10 Japan T. Makino Dandelion Racing 5 31

+23.912

57'38.823

5.487     1  
11 Japan S. Tsuboi Vantelin Team TOM'S 36 31

+25.770

57'40.681

1.858        
12
I. Kimura San-Ei Gen with B-Max
50 31

+30.377

57'45.288

4.607        
13 Japan K. Oshima docomo business ROOKIE 14 31

+33.224

57'48.135

2.847        
14 Japan A. Miyake ThreeBond Racing 12 31

+45.170

58'00.081

11.946        
15 Japan U. Sasahara Vantelin Team TOM'S 37 31

+52.160

58'07.071

6.990        
16 Japan T. Oyu Vertex Partners Cerumo - INGING 39 31

+53.621

58'08.532

1.461        
17 Japan J. Noda TGM Grand Prix 53 31

+1'09.374

58'24.285

15.753        
18 France T. Pourchaire ITOCHU ENEX TEAM IMPUL 19 31

+1'18.873

58'33.784

9.499        
19 Japan K. Kobayashi Team KCMG 7 28

+3 Laps

53'21.624

3 Laps        
dnf Japan Y. Kunimoto ITOCHU ENEX TEAM IMPUL 20 1

+30 Laps

1'49.205

27 Laps       Retirement
dnf Japan K. Kotaka Kondo Racing 4 1

+30 Laps

1'49.284

0.079       Retirement
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