Super Formula rounds one and two recap: Ohta and Makino win season openers; Iwasa takes early championship lead

Written by Tarun Suresh, Edited by Rohan Brown

Ohta celebrating win with Dandelion team principal Kiyoshi Muraoka | Credit: Honda Racing Corporation

Round One

The battle for pole at the season opener was a thrilling three-horse race between the two Mugens and the Dandelion of Kakunoshin Ohta. One which saw two-time champion Tomoki Nojiri take pole for the 20th time in his career, equalling the record of the four-time champion Satoshi Motoyama, in the JRP (Japan Race Promotion) era of the sport.

The race started with Ayumu Iwasa passing his teammate for the lead at the start.

A safety car period started just as the pit window opened, which saw every single car come into the pits at the same time. This saw key players like Nojiri and Makino lose out due to the double stacks.

At the restart, Ohta jumped on the OTS (overtaking system) to make a critical overtake on Iwasa for the lead. One which Ohta managed to maintain despite a third safety car period.

The race ended with Iwasa rapidly chasing down Ohta. Iwasa had an OTS advantage for the final 25 seconds of the race and managed to close up the gap to Ohta, but failed to make an overtake at the final chicane. They crossed the line separated just 0.197 seconds apart.

This marked Ohta’s third win in a row, the first to replicate the feat since André Lotterer in 2011. Ren Sato finished third to round off the podium, his first for Nakajima Racing.

Sho Tsuboi managed to bag a vital fourth place finish, holding off a charging Kamui Kobayashi. 

Zak O’Sullivan finished eighth to score points on debut. His fellow rookies Syun Koide and Igor Fraga saw their great pace foreshadowed by rookie mistakes and bad luck. Koide fell victim to a poor start, whilst  Fraga was forced to start from the pit lane after an error had occurred before the race.

Round Two 

Makino leads the race ahead of his teammate, Ohta | Image Credits: Honda Racing Corporation

Similar to round one, qualifying was a three-horse race between the Mugens and Ohta. Similarly, Nojiri got pole, Iwasa qualified second and Ohta third.

The race once again started  with Iwasa passing Nojiri for the lead. Tadasuke Makino had a great start going up to third, ahead of Ohta and Tsuboi. 

Nojiri and Ohta pit at the end of lap one, along with around half the grid, and Iwasa soon followed. This created a race of strategy, with those not pitting at the start waiting till the end of the race.

The Mugens struggled to maintain tire life, and Ohta quickly got ahead of Nojiri. An impatient overtake attempt on Iwasa resulted in Ohta leaving the track and gaining a place on Iwasa. Ohta consequently got a rather lenient five second penalty.

When the race leaders Makino and Tsuboi finally made their pit stops on lap 20, Ohta initially got the lead of the race, but not for long. Makino, on fresh tires, got past his teammate a lap after Ohta got past him.

A racing incident between Zak O’Sullivan and Oliver Rasmussen’s stand-in, Seita Nonaka, brought out a safety car, under which the race ended. This closed up the field and turned what would’ve been a third place finish for Ohta to a 12th place finish.

Makino had a great race and deservingly won the race, with Tsuboi and Iwasa completing  the podium. Nojiri finished fourth, just ahead of a charging Fraga. 

Iwasa leads the standings with 30 points ahead of Tsuboi with 23. Ohta and Makino are following closely with 22 and 21 points respectively.