Fenestraz leads Team TOM’S 1-3 after brave strategy gamble at Suzuka; DELiGHTWORKS Racing score maiden podium
- Tarun Suresh
- 5 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Round 4 of the Super Formula season held at Suzuka was endlessly dramatic and saw Sacha Fenestraz Honda's ten race win streak at Suzuka after a bold strategy gamble. Behind him in second was Nobuharu Matsushita, finishing on the podium for only the third race for DELiGHTWORKS Racing. Here's how today's events played out.
Qualifying for round 4 was as dramatic as some races. In Qualifying 1 for the drivers in Group A, Tadasuke Makino ran wide and into the gravel exiting the second Degner, effectively ending his qualifying session.
2024 champion Sho Tsuboi was initially second fastest in the session, but his lap time was deleted due to track limits at the second Degner.
The drivers who made it to Qualifying 2 were Ayumu Iwasa, Nirei Fukuzumi, Ren Sato, Kamui Kobayashi, Toshiki Oyu and Yuto Nomura.
In the Q1 session for Group B, the drivers who made it through to Q2 were: Kakunoshin Ohta, Tomoki Nojiri, Sena Sakaguchi, Igor Fraga, Syun Koide and Zak O’Sullivan.
Q2 was a showing of Mugen brilliance, Ayumu Iwasa snatching pole position by just 18 milliseconds from his teammate Tomoki Nojiri. The duo were half a second quicker than the closest qualifier, Yuto Nomura, after an impressive lap time from the rookie driver.
Sena Sakaguchi was the leading Toyota and only two hundredths off Nomura’s time. Nirei Fukuzumi was close behind in fifth, exactly three tenths behind Sakaguchi.
Zak O’Sullivan, Kamui Kobayashi, and most crucially, championship leader Kakunoshin Ohta, all had their lap times deleted due to track limits, making them start tenth, eleventh and twelfth respectively.
The race started strong for the two Mugens, especially Iwasa, who developed a gap of more than a second to his teammate, Nojiri, at the end of lap one.
It was a nightmare for Nomura, the rookie started third but fell down to ninth by lap two. Ren Sato, starting sixth, initially took third place after a speedy start but quickly lost positions to Fukuzumi and Sakaguchi.
Syun Koide, starting eighth, stalled at the start and retired after one lap. He entered the race again after two laps.
Makino and Tsuboi started at the back and quickly went up to fifteenth and eighteenth, respectively, but could not make much progress after that.
When the pit window opened on lap eight, Ohta, Oyu, Nobuharu Matsushita, and Kamui Kobayashi chose to pit immediately. Fukuzumi pitted a lap later after complaining about tyre wear.
Pitting a lap earlier worked wonderfully for Ohta, who quickly got past Fukuzumi and was the fastest on track. By lap 12, Ohta was six seconds clear of Fukuzumi, leading the cars who’ve pit early.
Sato retired from the race on lap nine after technical difficulties. A few laps later on lap 16, Kenta Yamashita also retired from the race.
While all this was happening, Nomura was quietly making a comeback, climbing back to third and eventually fighting with Nojiri for second. However, when he pitted on lap 17, an error by the pit crew cost him multiple places, and he came out almost ten seconds behind Fukuzumi.
Technical issues continued plaguing the field as Ukyo Sasahara retired on lap 18.
Seita Nonaka crashed out exiting 130R after his rear wing detached from the car and hit the barriers, bringing the safety car out. Nonaka remained unharmed.
All the drivers who had not made their pit stops came in for their mandatory tyre change. Iwasa remained in the lead, but it was Ohta in second now, the undercut strategy working wonders for the Dandelion driver.
Nojiri was undoubtedly the biggest loser in this round of pit stops, with Mugen double-stacking both him and Iwasa. Nojiri got the short end of the stick and had an eighteen second pit stop.
Light rain started pouring on the track, but it was not enough to convince the teams to switch to wet tyres.
When the safety car came in on lap 22, Iwasa had a restart to forget, dropping to fifth. Ohta took the lead, but it was O’Sullivan who was quickest, jumping from sixth to second. Nomura was also impressive, from eighth to fourth.
The rain seemed to be significant as Fraga crashed out exiting turn two, and so did Nojiri, but at the end of the S curves.
When the safety car came out, the leaders pitted for wet compound tyres, but seven drivers in the midfield chose to gamble and stayed on slicks. Fenestraz, Luke Browning, Oyu, Matsushita and Tsuboi now occupied the top five.
Staněk was the leading driver on wets in eighth, switching to wets before the first safety car period even ended. After switching to wet tyres, Ohta was ninth, Fukuzumi was tenth, O’Sullivan was eleventh, and Iwasa was only in twelfth.
With the safety car coming in soon and the grid split between wets and slicks, the few remaining laps were going to be dramatic.
The safety car came in at the end of lap 27, and with four laps to go, Fenestraz had a stellar restart, not only maintaining his lead, but creating a 1.3 second lead at the end of the lap.
Matsushita and Tsuboi did not wait to get moving as they moved up to second and third, respectively, and Tsuboi was fastest.
They could not match Fenestraz, however, as the Argentine was the first to cross the finish line, grabbing his Team TOM’S first win of the season. He broke Honda’s ten win streak at Suzuka
Second was Matsushita, who scored the first podium for Super Formula’s newest team just three races into the season. Tsuboi finished third, a result to be proud of after starting in twenty second.
Luke Browning grabbed his second fourth place finish in the two full length races. Oyu finished fifth after struggling to keep up with the other slick runners. Charlie Wurz finished sixth, the rookie grabbing his first points in Super Formula after grabbing a podium on debut in Super GT just a few weeks earlier.
Ohta was the leading driver on wets, finishing seventh, just ahead of Staněk in eighth. O’Sullivan and Fukuzumi occupied the final two points scoring spots.
It wasn’t entirely a disaster of a round for Ohta as he still ended up extending his championship lead by two points with 41 points to his name now. Fenestraz is now running second in the driver standings with 22.5 points. Iwasa failed to score points, but has only dropped one place to third with 20.5 points.
Things are a lot tighter in the Teams’ Championship, Team TOM’S jump up from twelfth to leading the fight for the title with 34.5 points. Dandelion Racing are close by, just half a point behind.
Round 5 takes place tomorrow with qualifying scheduled for 10:25 AM JST and the race at 2:45 PM JST.
