The opening event of the 2025 SUPER FORMULA series (R1 & R2) was held at Suzuka Circuit (Mie Prefecture). 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. #5 Tadasuke Makino (DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING) won in R2 and giving Honda/M-TEC engine users consecutive wins.

[R2 Qualifying Sessions]

Fine weather greeted Suzuka Circuit early in the morning on Sunday, and the conditions slightly differed from yesterday partly because of a shift in wind direction.

In Q1-A session, #5 Makino, #15 Iwasa and #50 Koide marked top three times. The same hattrick was repeated in Q1-B session by #16 Nojiri, #64 Sato and #6 Ohta. In Q2, #16 Nojiri hit the top yet again, achieving the second pole position in a row as well as his 21st pole position in the category, which is the highest record in history. #15 Iwasa came in 2nd, and #6 Ohta 3rd, the same trio lined up on the grid as the top three, which was followed by #5 Makino in 5th and #64 Sato in 6th.

[R2 The Race]

The weather was fine on Sunday, with ambient and track surface temperatures raising to 15℃ and 38℃ respectively. With the wind getting stronger as the day went on, the race conditions demanded a difficult approach towards setup. At 2:40 p.m., R2 was green-flagged for a 32-lap battle. The first into Turn-1 was #15 Iwasa who outran #16 Nojiri again in the launch from the starting grid. #6 Ohta, the R1 winner, was trailing behind in 3rd, and then #5 Makino moving up from 5th on the grid into 4th.

For the 2025 season, a new race regulation is applied to the second race of the “1-event/2-race” double-header format that cancels any pit window restrictions allowing the entrant to change tyres at anytime during the 32-lap race. It was one of those moments when the strategic differences between the teams became palpable, and to everyone’s surprise, some of the cars including top-three chose to make their stop right after the opening lap. On the other hand, #5 Makino, #1 Tsuboi and #64 Sato preferred to stay on the track and lead the race amid a chaotic state.

On Lap-20, a little after the turnaround point, #5 Makino and #1 Tsuboi headed for the pit lane, and so did #64 Sato a lap later who, unfortunately, took longer in changing tyres and inevitably lost many places as he got back in the race. #5 Makino returned to the track maintaining his position, but allowed #6 Ohta shod with nicely heated tyres to close up and finally take the lead at NIPPO corner.

As it turned out soon after, a 5-sec. time penalty was officially pronounced to #6 Ohta for his short cut at the chicane when he was trying to overtake #15 Iwasa. #6 Ohta pushed hard trying to pull away for enough of a gap to offset the 5-sec. penalty, however, #5 Makino’s pace was way faster with fresh rubber. On Lap-24 at 130R, #5 Makino finally took the leading position from #6 Ohta. On Lap-28, a car stranded on the track caused another SC period that would last until the end of the race.

#5 Makino received the checkered flag, then #6 Ohta followed right behind having failed to open up the gap due to the SC and was relegated further back in the field. 2nd position therefore went to #1 Tsuboi and 3rd to #15 Iwasa. The pole sitter, #16 Nojiri finished 4th, and the rookie, #65 Omura Fraga in 5th, each earned their share of series points.

[Tadasuke Makino (R2 Winner)]

"It’s so hard for me yesterday, and I was almost in tears, really! But I reset my mind and I could take revenge today. The fact that I saved the last point in the pitiful opening race was a sort of consolation to me. Today, I was wondering what should I do about the unimpressive performance in the qualifying sessions, though, I’m really happy that I could win, and I feel relieved a little bit, honestly.

"Motegi hosting next rounds is the memorable place for me where I won last year albeit in a different month, and of course it’s one of my favourite tracks. So, I’ll do my best to achieve a double win there. We’ve done a lot of things to prepare for the new season, and it’s so nice that, even if it’s just the season opener, we could see one of them beared fruit today."