Super Formula Rounds 6&7 recap: Ohta halts Tsuboi's Fuji dominance
- Tarun Suresh
- Jul 20
- 6 min read
Written by Tarun Suresh
Round 6
Tomoki Nojiri started the weekend strong by claiming his fourth pole position of the season. Sho Tsuboi qualified a very close second, only 21 milliseconds off the two-time champion. Nirei Fukuzumi and Toshiki Oyu locked out the second row in what have been their best qualifying performances this season so far. Ayumu Iwasa rounded off the top five, and championship leader Tadasuke Makino qualified sixth.
Kazuya Oshima qualified thirteenth for his hundredth Super Formula race.
This qualifying session saw quite a few drivers have their lap times deleted due to track limits, a rarity in Super Formula. Most affected by this was the second-placed driver in the championship, Kakunoshin Ohta, who dropped from ninth to twelfth. Juju Noda, Seita Nonaka, Zak O’Sullivan and Mitsunori Takaboshi also fell victim to track limits.
Tomoki Nojiri had a good start to the race but couldn’t keep the four-time winner at Fuji, Tsuboi, at bay. Tsuboi took the lead at the end of the first lap and by the end of lap three, had already built up a lead of over a second. The top five didn’t see any other changes except for Iwasa and Oyu swapping places.
When the pit window opened on lap 11, Fukuzumi was the first to pit, coming in from third. Makino and Sakaguchi followed him into the pits from seventh and eighth, respectively. Nojiri pit from second on the next lap.
For others at the top, who decided to go long on the first stint to pull off an overcut, it proved to be the inferior strategy. When Iwasa and Oyu eventually came in on lap 22, the former had lost a position to Makino, and the latter had lost two more places, one to his teammate Sena Sakaguchi and the other to Oshima.
Tsuboi came in on lap 24 and initially lost a place to Nojiri and had Fukuzumi hot on his tail. Tsuboi quickly got heat into his tires and fended off Fukuzumi, and two laps from then, got past Nojiri for the net lead of the race. He would go on to maintain the lead till the chequered flag.
A late race charge from Iwasa had him pass Makino and Fukuzumi one after the other. He came close to getting past Nojiri as well, but a drag race to the finish line saw the more experienced driver take home second place.
Kazuya Oshima finished his hundredth race in sixth despite starting thirteenth. He received a well-deserved celebration post-race. In the press conference which followed, he announced his retirement in an emotional, tear-filled speech.
The Inging drivers, Sakaguchi and Oyu, finished seventh and eighth, respectively. Igor Fraga continues his points streak with a ninth-place finish in what is turning out to be a breakout rookie season. Ohta, who was second in the standings heading into the weekend, had a race to forget, finishing only tenth.
Similar to round 4 at Fuji last year, Tsuboi and his wife Aimi Saito each won at Fuji on the same weekend. Tsuboi winning in Super Formula and Saito winning in the ever-so-competitive Kyojo Cup. Tsuboi, after the end of the race, even joked: “She’s putting a lot of pressure on me to win by winning before me.”
This dominant performance, coupled with a struggling Team Dandelion, promoted Tsuboi to the top of the standings with 73 points. Makino dropped down to second (71 points), and Ohta dropped to third in the standings with just 62 points.
Round 7
Tsuboi made it very clear he was disappointed that he missed out on pole for round 6 and “wanted revenge” for that. The significantly warmer track conditions proved to be quite the challenge for a lot of drivers.
Initially, it seemed like Tsuboi was out of his element in the warmer conditions, remarking: “…I felt like ‘Maybe I’ve fallen off.’” But that wasn’t enough to stop him. Tsuboi qualified on pole position.
Ohta turned his performance around to qualify second, less than a tenth away from the pole sitter. Ren Sato put in a phenomenal lap to qualify third. Oyu and Iwasa finished off the top five, split by only 10 milliseconds. Makino qualified only tenth, a long way off his title rivals Tsuboi and Ohta.
Ohta had a lightning-quick start to the race, getting past Tsuboi before turn one. Just like Nojiri, the previous race, Ohta couldn’t keep the five-time Fuji winner at bay for long. Tsuboi steamed past him on lap one. Oyu got past Sato at the start, and Iwasa maintained his fifth place.
Juju Noda retired due to damage sustained after an incident with Takaboshi on lap one.
Iwasa was the first from the top five to pit, coming in on lap eight. Just like round 6, the early pitstop proved to be the superior strategy. When Oyu pit a just couple laps later, not only did he lose a position to Iwasa, but to Fukuzumi and Fraga as well, both of whom had pitted earlier.
Fukuzumi retired on lap 12 after his front left wheel came loose on the entry to turn nine.
After a thrilling five-lap battle with Fraga, Oyu finally got past the Brazilian on lap 16. However, this battle cost both drivers a lot of time; the gap between Oyu and Iwasa widened from a couple of seconds to nine seconds.
KCMG took advantage of Fraga and Oyu slowing each other down and pit Kamui Kobayashi, who came out of the pits ahead of both of them.
Strangely, Seita Nonaka’s front left front wheel came off on track as well, this time bringing out the safety car. This brought all the remaining drivers yet to pit into the pits
.
The top three came out of the pits behind Iwasa, handing him the lead. Ren Sato was awarded a 5-second penalty for not following safety car procedures.
When the safety car came in on lap 24, Iwasa pulled off an amazing start to establish a clear lead at the restart.
The lap after the restart, Fraga came into the pits from sixth due to damage. Atsushi Miyake retired the lap after due to mechanical issues.
Brilliant defending from Iwasa saw him fend off Tsuboi, who launched a barrage of overtaking attempts, which cost him all of his OTS. Ohta took advantage of that and used his OTS reserves cleverly to get past Tsuboi, and Iwasa later on.
Kakunoshin Ohta crossed the finish line first, ending Tsuboi’s four-win streak at Fuji. Iwasa fended off Tsuboi on tires that were 11 laps older to finish second, with Tsuboi coming in third. Kobayashi followed closely for a fourth-place finish.
Fenestraz finished fifth after a fantastic late race charge. Ren Sato finished sixth following his penalty. Oyu and Yamashita finished seventh and eighth, respectively, after a very tight battle between the two. Makino finished a disappointing ninth. The retiring Oshima secured the final points scoring spot.
This win was a milestone for Dandelion, their first win at Fuji in seventeen years. This also put Ohta back in the mix for the championship. Post-race, he even said: “If I couldn’t beat Tsuboi today, I can’t win the championship…this is the best win of my career.”
Tsuboi’s streak at Fuji might’ve ended, but his dominant performance is still one for the history books. His four-win streak puts him tied for second for most consecutive wins at the circuit with “The fastest man in Japan” Kazuyoshi Hoshino’s four wins at Fuji from 1989 to 1990, back when the series was called the All-Japan Formula 3000 Championship. Hoshino also holds the record with six consecutive wins at Suzuka from 1986-‘87.
Despite a disappointing race, Tsuboi still leads the standings with 87 points. Ohta turned his fortunes around and is currently second, only three points behind the reigning champion. Makino fell behind and dropped to third with only 73 points. Iwasa is on the fringes of the title battle with 67 points.
The remaining five races provide a good mix of Honda and Toyota favouring circuits, with two races each at Fuji and Suzuka and one more at Sportsland SUGO. This title race is definitely set to go to the wire.
The next race will be held at SUGO on the tenth of August.
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