Fraga clinches second consecutive Super Formula pole at Fuji
Igor Fraga grabs a second consecutive pole at Fuji and will be joined by the defending champion, Ayumu Iwasa, on the front row.
Qualifying 1
Group A
Off the bat, lap times were close to a second slower than what the drivers were able to pull off yesterday, with only Toshiki Oyu breaking into the 1:22.7s as he went quickest, a far cry from the high 1:21s we saw from the fastest in this session yesterday.
The pole sitter last time out, Fraga, was second quickest around six hundredths back, and two hundredths behind him was Tadasuke Makino. Yuto Nomura was fourth fastest. Tomoki Nojiri and Nobuharu Matsushita took up the final Qualifying 2 spots.
Those who were eliminated were, in order: Sacha Fenestraz, Rikuto Kobayashi, Nirei Fukuzumi, Roman Staněk, Ukyo Sasahara and Giuliano Alesi.
Group B
Lap times were quicker in Group B, in stark contrast to yesterday’s qualifying where lap times got slower. Sho Tsuboi was quickest with a mighty 1:22.595 lap time. A tenth behind him in second was Kakunoshin Ohta, and a tenth behind him was Zak O’Sullivan.
Ayumu Iwasa was fourth quickest, with Ren Sato and Syun Koide taking up the final spots into Q2.
Those who were eliminated were, in order: Kenta Yamashita, Kazuhisa Urabe, Charlie Wurz, Kamui Kobayashi, Luke Browning and Juju Noda.
Qualifying 2
Lap times kept ramping up in Q2, and it was Fraga on top of the timing sheets with a 122.266, taking his second pole position of the weekend. More than a tenth behind him was Ayumu Iwasa, who will be starting next to him on the front row.
O’Sullivan and championship leader Ohta will be sharing the second row. Oyu was fifth quickest and will start alongside Tsuboi in sixth. Qualifying king Nojiri could only go seventh fastest, with Sato not too far back in eighth.
Matsushita and Nomura took up the final two top ten spots, with Makino and Koide starting eleventh and twelfth, respectively.
The race is scheduled to start this afternoon at 15:00 JST (07:00 BST).
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