Nojiri is P2, Nomura is P3 in round 6
Double podium for Nojiri and Iwasa taking 2nd & 3rd in Fuji

The sixth round of the 2025 Super Formula series was held at Fuji Speedway (Shizuoka Pref.) on July 19 (Sat) after the rainy season has officially ended in the region. #16 Tomoki Nojiri (TEAM MUGEN) achieved his 23rd pole position which is the new record number of the series. #16 Nojiri finished 2nd in the race and climbed up on the podium together with his team mate, #15 Ayumu Iwasa who finished 3rd.
On July 19 (Sat) at 15:15 p.m., prior to the 36-lap race, the condition was getting even harsher for tyres as the ambient and road surface temperature reached 33℃ and 49℃ each.
#16 Nojiri, after a superb start, rushed first into Turn-1 while #15 Iwasa climbed from 5th on the grid up to 4th and #65 Omura Fraga followed suit into 5th all the way from the 8th grid. #16 Nojiri maintained the top position for a short while but was soon tailed close behind by #1 Sho Tsuboi (Toyota) who had started from the 2nd grid. #1 Tsuboi then activated the overtake system (OTS) as he went into Lap-2 down along the home straight, came into Nojiri’s slip stream, and made the pass into Turn-1.
#16 Nojiri tried hard to pursue #1 Tsuboi only to find the gap between the two gradually increased thereafter, and worse still, #8 Nirei Fukuzumi (Toyota) running 3rd was looming up in his mirror. Bunched in a second bracket behind the top three cars followed four other cars, #15 Iwasa, #39 Toshiki Oyu (Toyota), #65 Omura Fraga and #5 Makino, in a very close battle for position.
When the entire field completed ten laps, the pit window opened and #8 Fukuzumi, #5 Makino, #50 Koide and some other cars immediately came into the pit whereas #16 Nojiri, intending to hamper #8 Fukuzumi’s probable undercut, stayed a lap longer and made his stop on Lap-11. As he planned, #16 Nojiri joined the track in front of #8 Fukuzumi, however, the gap between #1 Tsuboi, the race leader, was further increased to over 65-sec. This meant that he needed to shrink the gap to 40-sec or so to have any chance of a comeback win.
#16 Nojiri, running on fresh tyres, began setting a series of quick laps and closed on #1 Tsuboi to within 38-seconds on Lap-22. His undercut measure looked promising at this point. On Lap-23, when #1 Tsuboi made his stop, #16 Nojiri sprinted through the home straight and took up the virtual top position.
As it turned out, however, #1 Tsuboi’s pace on fresh tyres was obviously higher than Nojiri’s and his some 10-sec margin vanished almost all at once. On Lap-26, #16 Nojiri had to surrender the top position to #1 Tsuboi and settle in 2nd.
On the other hand, #15 Iwasa kept on pushing harder and harder after his tyre stop, overtaking #5 Makino who was running virtual 5th on Lap-25, and then on Lap-31, pounced on #8 Fukuzumi from outside at Turn-1 using OTS to climb to 3rd. At this stage of the race, the gap between #16 Nojiri (2nd) and #15 Iwasa (3rd) was 2.911-sec. #15 Iwasa had the upper hand over #16 Nojiri with both tyres and OTS reserve. He closed in on his team mate in the hope for a position change.
As a matter of fact, #15 Iwasa’s pursuit run out of time when the gap came down to 0.535-sec, and #16 Nojiri and #15 Iwasa finished 2nd and 3rd respectively making up TEAM MUGEN’s double podium finish. #5 Makino finished 5th, #65 Omura Fraga 9th and #6 Ohta 6th, each earned the corresponding series points.
The point ranking at the end of R6 represents #5 Makino standing overall 2nd, #6 Ohta 3rd, #16 Nojiri 4th, #15 Iwasa 5th, #65 Omura Fraga 7th and #64 Sato 8th.

I started the race from the pole position and maintained the position at Turn-1, however, I lost the ground after that and was soon passed by another car. Now I think I could have done better, but if the race pace in this weekend take into account, it must have been tough work anyway. We need to further enhance our competitiveness right away or we’re going to yield the momentum over the series to Tsuboi all at once. We had a certain goal to achieve, which was left undone, and it made me pissed off, honestly. But, we’re certainly in a position where our opponent is still in sight. That means we can catch up at anytime if we found a bit of a clue. Nobody knows what will happen in the race, so we’ll do our best to win the next race, R7.
I started the race from the pole position and maintained the position at Turn-1, however, I lost the ground after that and was soon passed by another car. Now I think I could have done better, but if the race pace in this weekend take into account, it must have been tough work anyway. We need to further enhance our competitiveness right away or we’re going to yield the momentum over the series to Tsuboi all at once. We had a certain goal to achieve, which was left undone, and it made me pissed off, honestly. But, we’re certainly in a position where our opponent is still in sight. That means we can catch up at anytime if we found a bit of a clue. Nobody knows what will happen in the race, so we’ll do our best to win the next race, R7.












