The opening event of the 2025 SUPER FORMULA series (R1 & R2) was held at Suzuka Circuit (Mie Pref).  Two free-practice sessions were held on Friday, and the official qualifying session and race were held each on Saturday and Sunday for R1 and R2 respectively. #6 Kakunoshin Ohta (DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING) won in R1, giving a good feeling towards the new season for Honda/M-TEC engine users.

A total of 9 drivers from 6 teams using the Honda/M-TEC engine participated in the 2025 SUPER FORMULA series as follows: Tadasuke Makino #5, Kakunoshin Ohta #6 (DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING),
Juju #10 (HAZAMA ANDO Triple Tree Racing),
Atsushi Miyake #12 (ThreeBond Racing),
Ayumu Iwasa #15, Tomoki Nojiri #16 (TEAM MUGEN),
Syun Koide #50 (San-Ei Gen with B-Max),
Ren Sato #64, Igor Omura Fraga #65 (PONOS NAKAJIMA RACING).

Koide and Omura Fraga are the debutant among the above-mentioned line-ups.

[R1 Qualifying Sessions]

A fierce battle was fought between #16 Nojiri and #15 Iwasa in Q2 for pole for R1 on Saturday, which was won by Nojiri assuming seniority over Iwasa, making up the front row monopoly by the TEAM MUGEN duo. The 3rd grid went to #6 Ohta who had finished the previous season with two-straight wins, and his team mate, #5 Makino who seized 4th on the grid which means Honda/M-TEC drivers dominated the first two rows to start the afternoon's race with Honda’s 1-2-3-4 formation. A strong start to the 2025 season.

[R1 The Race]

The race was started at 2:45 p.m., under a cloudy sky, with the ambient/track surface temperatures at 13℃ and 21℃ respectively. #15 Iwasa quickly got ahead of the pack while #16 Nojiri was slightly delayed by wheelspin away from the line. #6 Ohta and #5 Makino followed immediately behind the TEAM MUGEN duo, when #12 Miyake slid off at the NIPPO corner and hit the wall, leading to the Safety Car (SC) being deployed to remove the car.

As the race was restarted on Lap-5, #64 Sato made up his position with superb timing, which eventually brought about a Honda/M-TEC driver 1-2-3-4-5 formation. On Lap-9, an accident occurred at the S corner, and the SC was deployed for the second time in the afternoon. During the SC period, the race-leading car completed 10 laps, which duly lifted off the pit stop embargo, and thus the entire runners came in for new tyres almost all at once.

TEAM MUGEN and DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING, both being two-car entries, had decided in advance that the driver in front had priority of pit work, therefore, both #16 Nojiri and #5 Makino had to wait and naturally lost some positions. Worse still for #5 Makino, his engine stalled during the stop causing a further setback. The SC period continued even after the tyre change of all cars and their returning back on track. #15 Iwasa maintained his top position, then #6 Ohta moved up to 2nd, and #1 Sho Tsuboi (TOYOTA) also came from behind to 3rd thanks to the quick pit work with #64 Sato following behind.

On Lap-13 when the action was resumed #6 Ohta, using Overtake System (OTS), closed in on #15 Iwasa and got ahead around the outside at Turn-1 to snatch the top position. #64 Sato followed suit by overtaking #1 Tsuboi in an aggressive manner, however, another accident at the chicane provoked yellow flag and subsequent SC for the third time in the race.

The race still had ten laps to go when the SC exited, with #6 Ohta running at the top and #15 Iwasa and #64 Sato following in 2nd and 3rd. Looking at the surplus time of OTS, #15 Iwasa had more time than #6 Ohta had at that time. #15 Iwasa attacked #6 Ohta hard by using OTS and #6 Ohta responded by using his OTS at the best possible timing. The last-minute battle between the top two saw #6 Ohta crossing the line 0.197 sec. faster than the counterpart, to achieve his the third straight win since the last two wins recorded at the final event at Suzuka last year.

[Kakunoshin Ohta (R1 Winner)]

"I’ve been a rabbit type of driver who loves a runaway race very much, but today, I could win after a crucial overtake which makes me feel good because I think it’s a proof of strength as well as speed. I was thinking my chance, if I had any, would be right after the SC period when tyres were yet to be up to temperature. As a matter of fact, Iwasa was sliding all over the place when I was about to move on him, which made me decide, “The time is now!” and I went for it with OTS in full use. I wished I’d run off after that, but it’s not the case. I was under a huge pressure all through to the end. It was a toughest race I’ve ever had."