The Honda camp aiming for a “come-from-behind title win” at the final rounds
Fuji SpeedwayOctober 12 (Sat) - 13 (Sun) — The sixth event of the 2024 SUPER FORMULA series was held at Fuji Speedway (Shizuoka Pref.) in which a double-header round (R-6 & 7) took place for two days in a row.
A total of 10 drivers of 6 teams using Honda/M-TEC engine participated in the race as per follows: Tadasuke Makino #5, Kakunoshin Ohta #6 (DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING), Atsushi Miyake #12 (ThreeBond Racing), Ayumu Iwasa #15, Tomoki Nojiri #16 (TEAM MUGEN), Iori Kimura #50 (San-Ei Gen with B-Max), Juju #53, Hiroki Otsu #55 (TGM Grand Prix), Naoki Yamamoto #64, Ren Sato #65 (PONOS NAKAJIMA RACING). A set of qualifying sessions and the race was carried out on Saturday for R-6 and on Sunday for R-7 featuring the unique 1-event 2-race weekend that has started since 2022.
Yet another fine day on 13 (Sun), the official qualifying session for R-7 was started at 9:00 a.m. #15 Iwasa and #65 Sato did the Q1 A-group run successfully into Q2. #5 Makino marked the best time in the Q1 B-group immediately followed by #16 Nojiri, #64 Yamamoto and #55 Otsu, which meant the top-4 monopoly in the B-group by Honda/M-TEC users, a total of six of them made way to Q2.
In the Q2 session, the pole position was took by #36 Tsuboi and #16 Nojiri sat in 2nd. As an extra point was allocated to the pole-sitter of each round, the order of the series point ranking was changed so as to turn the top-2 rankers vice versa, i.e., Tsuboi at the top and Nojiri second. #15 Iwasa was relegated to 12th grid, the bottom of the Q2 runners, due to the nullification of time indicted for the complete course off (all four wheels simultaneously go out of the line). #5 Makino will start from 4th grid, #65 Sato 5th, #54 Yamamoto 7th and #55 Otsu 10th.
On 13 (Sun), the formation lap of R-7 began at 2:40 p.m., and the race was started under the condition slightly higher than the previous day (R-6), for ambient and track surface temperature each at 25℃ and 35℃. #5 Makino displayed brilliant launch from 4th grid and, after beating #16 Nojiri in the start dash, jumped up to 2nd next to #36 Tsuboi. Makino even tried to assault upon Tsuboi by using Overtake System (OTS), however, an accident occurred at the Dunlop corner on Lap-2 induced Safety Car, and the race had to be reset all over again.
The race was restarted from Lap-7. #8 Nirei Fukuzumi (Kids com Team KCMG) began quickly catching up #5 Makino in 2nd, running side by side at the straight on Lap-8, and then lobbed #5 Makino of his 2nd position. Makino, now in 3rd, was followed by #16 Nojiri and #65 Sato, when the pit window was opened clearing the minimum 10-lap embargo. #16 Nojiri running 4th immediately made his stop, done with the mandatory tire change, and returned to the track.
Top-3 order after Nojiri’s stop was; #36 Tsuboi at the top, #8 Fukuzumi in 2nd, #65 Sato coming up to 3rd. The moment when #8 Fukuzumi was pitted on Lap-12, an accident happened on the track, and Safety Car (SC) was deployed for the second time in the race. On Lap-13, while the pack was led by SC, #36 Tsuboi and #65 Sato headed for the pit one after another. #36 Tsuboi got back in the course fraction before #8 Fukuzumi arrived, and maintained his virtual top position. On the other hand, #65 Sato, as he returned to the race, tried hard to get ahead of #5 Makino, however, their lines crossed each other into Turn-1, and the two cars touched for a flash second. #5 Makino came out in front, but had to back off because the exchange happened during the SC period. As the race resumed on Lap-17, #65 Sato was running 3rd with #5 Makino and #16 Nojiri following in 4th and 5th respectively.
#65 Sato running 3rd put pressure on #8 Fukuzumi by using OTS and got ahead of him for once, but soon after, #8 Fukuzumi successfully retorted also with OTS. #65 Sato was outdone even by #5 Makino at the Coca-Cola corner on Lap-22 and dropped down to 4th. Behind him, #6 Ohta coming all the way from 14th grid, defeated #16 Nojiri just a moment ago, and now run strong in 5th. #16 Nojiri, on the contrary, having hard time to keep his pace, allowed #15 Iwasa to draw right behind and finally pass by on Lap-28.
Another on-track accident happened on Lap-32 that deployed SC for the third time in the afternoon. At this stage, #5 Makino was running forefront of the Honda/M-TEC users, then #65 Sato, #6 Ohta and #15 Iwasa were following in that order. As the race was resumed on Lap-38, three laps to go, although #15 Iwasa was overtook by #7 Kobayashi who has shown strong outing throughout the race, #5 Makino maintained his position for the rest of 41-laps and received the checkered flag in 3rd. #65 Sato was the fourth runner crossing the finish line, however, the accidental contact with #5 Makino resulted in a 10-second time penalty, and thereafter, the disqualification was announced reasoning the infringement of the vehicle regulations. Another 10-second time penalty given to the runner who had finished 8th brought out some promotion of order, and the final results were, #6 Ohta finished in 4th, #15 Iwasa 6th, #16 Nojiri 7th and #50 Kimura 9th, each earned deserving championship points.
#36 Tsuboi accumulating 86.5-points now sits at the top of the point ranking, #5 Makino came up in 2nd with a total of 72-points, and #16 Nojiri set back to 3rd with 70-points in total. The Honda camp is still in high hope towards the season’s final double-header event at Suzuka Circuit in November.
I was talking with my engineer before R-7 that we’re gonna push recklessly right from the start, and even if I was at the top, I’d make my stop on Lap-10, it’s a sort of foregone conclusion. Yesterday, in the race (R-6), I found my pace went up and up as the tank got lighter. That’s why I thought it should be an advantage (to start flying from the very beginning,) as long as the race went without mishap. I’m not sure whether it’s the reason I could finish 3rd, I knew I did all what I could do, for sure. And, If I had a beef in my mind, the safety car timing was really bad for me. Knowing it's definitely out of my control, still I can’t help but thinking what if, the safety car wasn’t there at that time and the race was kept on going? I still regret that now. Having said that, I could overtake Ren (Sato) on my own merit after the restart, and it made me feel I’ve done my job. Suzuka Circuit where the last two rounds take place is the place we, as a team, know best and thus be good at most among them all. I think we still have very good chance to make the major upset in the title race, both for the drivers and constructors championship.
I was talking with my engineer before R-7 that we’re gonna push recklessly right from the start, and even if I was at the top, I’d make my stop on Lap-10, it’s a sort of foregone conclusion. Yesterday, in the race (R-6), I found my pace went up and up as the tank got lighter. That’s why I thought it should be an advantage (to start flying from the very beginning,) as long as the race went without mishap. I’m not sure whether it’s the reason I could finish 3rd, I knew I did all what I could do, for sure. And, If I had a beef in my mind, the safety car timing was really bad for me. Knowing it's definitely out of my control, still I can’t help but thinking what if, the safety car wasn’t there at that time and the race was kept on going? I still regret that now. Having said that, I could overtake Ren (Sato) on my own merit after the restart, and it made me feel I’ve done my job. Suzuka Circuit where the last two rounds take place is the place we, as a team, know best and thus be good at most among them all. I think we still have very good chance to make the major upset in the title race, both for the drivers and constructors championship.
