Motegi Super Formula: Sekiguchi clinches maiden pole, Vandoorne out in Q2

Team Impul's Sekiguchi was on fine form in qualifying, clocking the quickest time of 1m33.002s, which was 0.415s clear of defending champion Hiroaki Ishiura.

Sekiguchi had clocked the second-best time in Q1, before going fastest in Q2, and then completing the puzzle with pole in Q3.

While the top two set their fastest times of the softer Yokohama tyres, third-placed Tomoki Nojiri was third, on the medium compound.

The two other drivers to use the white-branded tyres in Q3 were Yuji Kunimoto at fifth and James Rossiter in seventh.

Audi's WEC driver Andre Lotterer was fourth ahead of Kunimoto with Daisuke Nakajima in sixth.

Completing the top eight behind Rossiter was the championship leader - Team Mugen's Naoki Yamamoto.

Meanwhile, a flurry of late improvements from his rivals saw McLaren reserve Stoffel Vandoorne drop out in Q2, just losing out on a Q3 spot by mere 0.019s.

The Belgian lines up ninth, ahead of Fuji winner Joao Paulo de Oliveira.

"I think qualifying was going well in Q1, and also at the start of Q2 but I think I didn't set-up quite well in Q2 and lost out," Vandoorne said after qualifying.

"The medium tyres were almost quicker than the softer tyres on this track, shame we couldn't make it to Q3."

Q2 also marked the end of qualifying for Toyota WEC drivers Kazuki Nakajima and Kamui Kobayashi, the duo finishing 11th and 14th respectively.

Indian Narain Karthikeyan was the first of the bigger names to bow out in Q1, managing only 16th, missing the second part of qualifying by a mere 0.080s.

Qualifying results:

Po.	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Yuhi Sekiguchi	TEAM IMPUL	1'33.468 M	1'33.214 S	1'33.002 S
2	Hiroaki Ishiura	INGING	1'33.522 S	1'33.490 S	1'33.417 S
3	Tomoki Nojiri	DANDELION	1'33.851 S	1'33.380 S	1'33.677 M
4	Andre Lotterer	TOM’S	1'34.223 S	1'33.463 S	1'33.719 S
5	Yuji Kunimoto	INGING	1'33.825 S	1'33.365 S	1'33.758 M
6	Daisuke Nakajima	NAKAJIMA RACING	1'34.325 S	1'33.648 S	1'33.877 S
7	James Rossiter	KONDO	1'33.702 S	1'33.513 S	1'33.908 M
8	Naoki Yamamoto	TEAM MUGEN	1'33.785 S	1'33.426 S	1'33.988 S
9	Stoffel Vandoorne	DANDELION	1'33.557 S	1'33.667 S
10	J.P.de Oliveira	TEAM IMPUL	1'33.440 M	1'33.692 S
11	Kazuki Nakajima	TOM’S	1'33.699 S	1'33.714 S
12	Koudai Tsukakoshi	REAL SF	1'34.568 S	1'34.021 S
13	William Buller	KONDO	1'34.290 S	1'34.548 S
14	Kamui Kobayashi	TEAM LEMANS	1'33.795 S	1'34.664 S
15	Bertrand Baguette	NAKAJIMA RACING	1'34.625 S
16	Narain Karthikeyan	TEAM LEMANS	1'34.678 S
17	Yuichi Nakayama	Elyse	1'34.741 S
18	Takuya Izawa	REAL SF	1'34.760 S
19	Takashi Kogure	DRAGO CORSE	1'34.853