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Rachit Thukral

Yamamoto ends Fuji Super Formula test on top

With just a few minutes to go in the two-hour afternoon session, Yamamoto set a time of 1m22.464s in his Honda-powered SF23, beating Tomoki Nojiri’s morning benchmark by 0.046s.

It meant the three-time Super Formula champion ended both Fuji test days on top, although his time on Saturday afternoon was significantly slower than the 1m21.897s lap he managed in cooler conditions on Friday.

Yamamoto was among a handful of drivers who set their best times late in the second session, as most drivers got their qualifying simulations out of their way in the morning when OTS wasn’t available.

For instance, Nojiri recorded his time of 1m22.510s just an hour into the morning session, just after the track went back to green after a brief red flag caused by Kondo Racing driver Kazuto Kotaka stopping on track with a technical issue.

The Mugen driver wouldn't go for another quick lap in the afternoon and ended up down in 21st in that session's individual leaderboard.

Yamamoto’s Nakajima team-mate Ren Sato set a lap that would be good enough for third right at the end of the morning session, as he ended up just 0.016s behind Nojiri with a time of 1m22.526s.

Dandelion Racing’s Tadasuke Makino finished 0.035s behind Sato in fourth, just days scoring his first podium of the season at Sugo.

Kamui Kobayashi enjoyed a strong day of testing in fifth for KCMG, while Red Bull junior and Mugen driver Liam Lawson was sixth with a time of 1m22.676s.

Both Inging’s Sho Tsuboi and Impul driver Ryo Hirakawa set their quickest laps in the afternoon session and ended up seventh and eighth respectively in the overall order, separated by just 0.009s.

TGM’s Toshiki Oyu was classified ninth after retiring from last weekend’s Sugo race with floor damage, while championship leader Ritomo Miyata was 10th-fastest, 0.436s off the pace.

Miyata’s new team-mate Ukyo Sasahara, who replaces Giuliano Alesi at TOM’S for the remainder of the season, was 18th and 15th across the two sessions.

Hiroki Otsu spent the entire day testing the B-Max car belonging to Nobuharu Matsushita and clocked a best time of 1m23.082s during the afternoon running.

Apart from Kotaka’s stoppage, the second day of Fuji test featured no major interruptions, although KCMG driver Yuji Kunimoto did suffer a half spin at the start of the second session.

Afternoon results:

Position Driver Team Lap Time
1 Naoki Yamamoto TCS NAKAJIMA RACING 1'22''464
2 Tadasuke Makino DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING 1'22''707
3 Kamui Kobayashi Kids com Team KCMG 1'22''714
4 Sho Tsuboi P.MU/CERUMO・INGING 1'22''764
5 Ryo Hirakawa ITOCHU ENEX TEAM IMPUL 1'22''773
6 Liam Lawson TEAM MUGEN 1'22''831
7 Ren Sato TCS NAKAJIMA RACING 1'22''852
8 Ritomo Miyata VANTELIN TEAM TOM'S 1'23''056
9 Kakunoshin Ota DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING 1'23''069
10 Hiroki Otsu B-Max Racing Team 1'23''082
11 Sena Sakaguchi P.MU/CERUMO・INGING 1'23''087
12 Kenta Yamashita KONDO RACING 1'23''186
13 Kazuya Oshima docomo business ROOKIE 1'23''230
14 Toshiki Oyu TGM Grand Prix 1'23''292
15 Ukyo Sasahara VANTELIN TEAM TOM'S 1'23''339
16 Yuji Kunimoto Kids com Team KCMG 1'23''342
17 Nirei Fukuzumi ThreeBond Racing 1'23''536
18 Kazuto Kotaka KONDO RACING 1'23''544
19 Raoul Hyman B-Max Racing Team 1'23''873
20 Yuhi Sekiguchi ITOCHU ENEX TEAM IMPUL 1'24''037
21 Tomoki Nojiri TEAM MUGEN 1'24''318
22 Cem Bolukbasi TGM Grand Prix 1'24''814

Morning results:

Position Driver Team Lap Time
1 Tomoki Nojiri TEAM MUGEN 1'22''510
2 Ren Sato TCS NAKAJIMA RACING 1'22''526
3 Tadasuke Makino DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING 1'22''561
4 Kamui Kobayashi Kids com Team KCMG 1'22''617
5 Naoki Yamamoto TCS NAKAJIMA RACING 1'22''666
6 Liam Lawson TEAM MUGEN 1'22''676
7 Toshiki Oyu TGM Grand Prix 1'22''883
8 Sho Tsuboi P.MU/CERUMO・INGING 1'22''888
9 Ritomo Miyata VANTELIN TEAM TOM'S 1'22''900
10 Kakunoshin Ohta DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING 1'23''127
11 Kenta Yamashita KONDO RACING 1'23''132
12 Hiroki Otsu B-Max Racing Team 1'23''137
13 Nirei Fukuzumi ThreeBond Racing 1'23''258
14 Sena Sakaguchi P.MU/CERUMO・INGING 1'23''275
15 Ryo Hirakawa ITOCHU ENEX TEAM IMPUL 1'23''319
16 Yuji Kunimoto Kids com Team KCMG 1'23''377
17 Kazuya Oshima docomo business ROOKIE 1'23''555
18 Ukyo Sasahara VANTELIN TEAM TOM'S 1'23''570
19 Kazuto Kotaka KONDO RACING 1'23''610
20 Yuhi Sekiguchi ITOCHU ENEX TEAM IMPUL 1'23''714
21 Cem Bolukbasi TGM Grand Prix 1'23''734
22 Raoul Hyman B-Max Racing Team 1'24''135

 

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