Lotterer leads first Super Formula test day as Gasly impresses

Team TOM'S driver Andre Lotterer was quickest on the first day of 2017 Super Formula pre-season testing at Suzuka, as Red Bull junior Pierre Gasly led the Honda contingent.

Porsche WEC driver Lotterer was the only one to dip below the 1m36s barrier with a time of 1m35.657s in the afternoon session, beating teammate Kazuki Nakajima by 0.414s.

The latter was one of many drivers to improve on their laptimes in the dying moments of the two-hour afternoon session.

Inging's Hiroaki Ishiura completed a Toyota 1-2-3, with reigning GP2 champion Gasly 0.006s off in fourth place.

The Red Bull junior, who is making his debut in the Japanese premier single-seater championship, was the highest-placed of the Honda drivers

Yuhi Sekiguchi (Impul), who had topped the morning session, was fifth overall, ahead of reigning champion Yuji Kunimoto (Inging).

Toyota WEC driver Kamui Kobayashi kicked off his collaboration with KCMG, having left Team LeMans in the off-season, in seventh.

The Dandelion duo of Takuya Izawa and Tomoki Nojiri were eighth and ninth respectively, as Real Racing’s Koudai Tsukakoshi rounded out the Top 10.

Newcomers Jann Mardenborough (Impul), Nick Cassidy (Kondo Racing) and Felix Rosenqvist (Team LeMans) were 11th, 13th and 16th respectively.

Former Formula 1 driver Narain Karthikeyan, who switched from Team LeMans Toyota to Honda's Nakajima Racing outfit for this year, was 12th in the order.

Day 1 times:

Pos	Driver	Team/Engine	Morning	Afternoon
1	Andre Lotterer	Team TOM'S Toyota	1'37.720	1'35.657
2	Kazuki Nakajima	Team TOM'S Toyota	1'37.123	1'36.071
3	Hiroaki Ishiura	Inging Toyota	1'37.438	1'36.184
4	Pierre Gasly	Team Mugen Honda	1'37.740	1'36.190
5	Yuhi Sekiguchi	Team Impul Toyota	1'36.549	1'36.325
6	Yuji Kunimoto	Inging Toyota	1'36.821	1'36.616
7	Kamui Kobayashi	KCMG Toyota	1'38.230	1'36.713
8	Takuya Izawa	Team Dandelion Honda	1'37.794	1'36.733
9	Tomoki Nojiri	Team Dandelion Honda	1'38.247	1'36.810
10	Koudai Tsukakoshi	Real Racing Honda	1'39.876	1'36.818
11	Jann Mardenborough	Team Impul Toyota	1'39.865	1'36.936
12	Narain Karthikeyan	Nakajima Racing Honda	1'37.624	1'37.427
13	Nick Cassidy	Kondo Racing Toyota	1'37.449	1'37.692
14	Daisuke Nakajima	Nakajima Racing Honda	1'37.553	1'38.717
15	Naoki Yamamoto	Team Mugen Honda	1'37.647	1'38.594
16	Felix Rosenqvist	Team LeMans Toyota	1'38.449	1'37.966
17	Kazuya Oshima	Team LeMans Toyota	1'38.491	-
18	Takashi Kogure	B-Max Honda	1'38.890	1'38.503