Igor Fraga wins at Super Formula sprint race at Fuji

Credit: Super Formula

Round 3 was run in dry conditions, but did not have any shortage of drama.

Pole sitter Ayumu Iwasa didn’t get much power from the engine on the start and dropped down the pack, and a four way incident between himself, yesterday’s pole sitter Zak O’Sullivan, Roman Staněk and Nirei Fukuzumi gave Iwasa front-right suspension damage and took him out of the race with title rival Kakunoshin Ohta in the lead of the race.

This also brought out the safety car, and the incident was not investigated any further. After a long, eight lap wait, the safety car lights went off on lap nine.

This start was not lacking in any drama either. Igor Fraga climbed up to second from fourth after a brilliant start, but at the lead, Ohta went wide exiting turn one along with Sena Sakaguchi, who was fighting Fraga for second. 

This handed the lead to Fraga, but the Safety Car was brought out again as Juju Noda was stranded with a blown right rear on turn 14 after an incident with Yuto Nomura.

When the Safety Car period ended on Lap 14, Fraga had a brilliant restart; the gap to second already almost seven tenths by the time he entered turn one. Meanwhile, Tomoki Nojiri in second, was too busy fending off Sakaguchi to focus on Fraga.

Kakunoshin Ohta and Ukyo Sasahara, meanwhile, were each awarded 10 second penalties for “drying the track surface with a blower,” presumably by the crew before the race.

Up ahead, Sena Sakaguchi lost power in the engine from third and retired from the race.  Tsuboi soon climbed up to fourth, behind Ohta in third.

Ohta, intent on minimising the damage from his penalty, had started hunting down 

Tomoki Nojiri for second, but couldn’t make his way past.

Fraga embracing his engineer after the win | Credit: Super Formula

Fraga, up front, was the first to cross the line when the checkered flag was waved. Nojiri was some two and a half seconds behind in second. Ohta crossed the line third, but was dropped down to eighth due to the penalty.

Tsuboi was then promoted to the final podium position, the Saitama native back on the podium at Fuji after his six-long podium streak at the circuit ended yesterday.

Makino was classified fourth after successfully fending off Toshiki Oyu, who was fifth. Sacha Fenestraz finished sixth, and Rikuto Kobayashi took his maiden points in seventh. Ohta was classified eighth after his penalty was applied, and Staněk, who finished in the final points scoring position on track, was dropped down to last due to a 30 second penalty for Safety Car infringement, promoting Ren Sato to ninth.

With this being a sprint and fewer points being awarded, the championship order did not change too much. Ohta (75 points) extended his lead ahead of Iwasa (38.5 points) and Fukuzumi (35 points), both of whom failed to score, by two points.

Round 7 takes place later today at 15:35 JST. Nojiri will be starting on pole alongside Makino.