Igor Fraga grabs third Super Formula win in Round 9 at Fuji
After disappointment last time out in SUGO, Igor Fraga clinches his third career Super Formula win at Fuji in Round 9. Kakunoshin Ohta and Zak O'Sullivan rounded off the podium places.
As it happened
Fraga started clean, holding onto the lead. Things got feisty behind him, however. A rapid Ayumu Iwasa gained two places at Turn 1, getting past Yuto Nomura and Kakunoshin Ohta. Ohta wouldn’t let a loss in position slide and overtook Iwasa around the outside of Turn 2, who in turn retaliated with an overtake around the outside of 100R.
Ohta got past Iwasa again the following lap, this time for good as the championship leader started building a gap to the former Formula 2 driver.
Iwasa’s teammate, Tomoki Nojiri, was in the midst of a race to forget, dropping places on pace rapidly. By lap 8, the two-time champion had dropped from fourth to ninth.
Zak O’Sullivan, on the other hand, was climbing up the order. The Brit climbed up from sixth on the grid to third.
When the pit window opened on lap 11, Nojiri was the only driver to pit. Tadasuke Makino came in a lap later after struggling to climb out of the midfield squabbles. Iwasa, Nomura and Fukuzumi soon followed over the next few laps.
Ohta made his pitstop on lap 21 as Iwasa was starting to pick up pace, having pitted already. Fraga came in the next lap to fend off Ohta, handing over the lead to O’Sullivan, who then pitted the following lap.
Fraga and Ohta remained close initially after their pit stops, but once Fraga got his tyres up to temperature, he started building a solid gap to second.
O’Sullivan exited the pits behind Iwasa, but soon got past the defending champion and started closing the gap to Ohta.
Nomura, meanwhile, pulled into the pitlane to retire his car. The rookie started an impressive third, but had to retire after struggling for pace in the second stint due to an unspecified technical issue.
Behind the leading pack, Fukuzumi and Sho Tsuboi were involved in an intense multi-lap battle for fifth, and the 2024 champion got past the ROOKIE Racing driver on lap 33.
On the penultimate lap, Ohta developed a steering issue with the car, losing lap time rapidly. O’Sullivan closed the gap and was right on the gearbox of the championship leader, but was not close enough to steal second.
Fraga crossed the finish line first, grabbing his third career win. Since his two previous wins came at shortened replacement races, this is also his first win in a full-length race.
Ohta finished second, just two tenths ahead of O’Sullivan.
Iwasa finished fourth, with Tsuboi rounding off the top five. Fukuzumi finished sixth ahead of Nobuharu Matsushita, who finished seventh for the newest team on the grid. Toshiki Oyu crossed the line eighth, and it was a double-points finish for TGMGP with Rikuto Kobayashi ahead of Kamui Kobayashi.
Ohta has extended his championship lead to 48 points to Fraga, but not enough to wrap the title up by Round 10 Qualifying. He would need to walk away from this weekend with, at least, a 47 point lead ahead of Fraga to clinch the championship before the season finale.
This win puts Fraga second in the standings, jumping Iwasa and Fukuzumi. The latter two are the last drivers still mathematically in contention for the title, but would need perfect drives in the next three races with Ohta scoring no points to actually win the title.
Round 10 will take place tomorrow, on Sunday, with qualifying at 10:00 JST (02:00 BST) and the race will go green at 15:00 JST (07:00 BST).
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