Lotterer sweeps Super Formula test, Gasly shines again

Andre Lotterer ended the pre-season Super Formula test at Suzuka on top, while GP2 champion Pierre Gasly was the top Honda-powered driver in third overall.

For the second day in a row, Lotterer led TOM'S teammate Kazuki Nakajima at the head of the timesheets, setting a best time of 1m35.163s in the dying moments of the afternoon session.

That was enough for the Porsche WEC driver to topple morning pacesetter Nakajima by 0.110s, while Gasly and reigning champion Yuji Kunimoto also broke the 1m36s barrier.

In the Red Bull-liveried Mugen car, Gasly continued his impressive run from Monday, ending up only 0.442s off the pace and leading the Honda contingent by some seven tenths from Tomoki Nojiri.

Behind Kunimoto, rookie Nick Cassidy (Kondo Racing) completed the top five, the Kiwi enjoying a much better day after finishing only 13th on Monday.

Dandelion's Nojiri was sixth, followed by former champion Hiroaki Ishiura (Inging) and Narain Karthikeyan (Nakajima), the third best Honda driver. Kazuya Oshima (Team LeMans) and Yuhi Sekiguchi (Impul) completed the top 10.

Among the other newcomers, Oshima's teammate Felix Rosenqvist ended up 11th, 1.4s off the pace of Lotterer, while Jann Mardenborough (Impul) was only 16th, nearly two seconds behind.

Standing in for Kamui Kobayashi on Tuesday, Yuichi Nakayama was 18th fastest for KCMG.

Day 2 testing times:

Pos	Driver	Team/Engine	Morning	Afternoon
1	Andre Lotterer	Team TOM'S Toyota	1'37.713	1'35.163
2	Kazuki Nakajima	Team TOM'S Toyota	1'36.608	1'35.273
3	Pierre Gasly	Mugen Honda	1'38.407	1'35.585
4	Yuji Kunimoto	Inging Toyota	1'37.088	1'35.849
5	Nick Cassidy	Kondo Racing Toyota	1'37.329	1'36.071
6	Tomoki Nojiri	Team Dandelion Honda	1'37.341	1'36.228
7	Hiroaki Ishiura	Inging Toyota Team	1'38.128	1'36.333
8	Narain Karthikeyan	Nakajima Racing Honda	1'38.107	1'36.447
9	Kazuya Oshima	Team LeMans Toyota	1'38.542	1'36.472
10	Yuhi Sekiguchi	Team Impul Toyota	1'37.204	1'36.479
11	Felix Rosenqvist	Team LeMans Toyota	1'38.491	1'36.552
12	Koudai Tsukakoshi	Real Racing Honda	1'37.720	1'36.578
13	Takuya Izawa	Team Dandelion Honda	1'37.203	1'36.624
14	Daisuke Nakajima	Nakajima Racing Honda	1'38.362	1'36.895
15	Kenta Yamashita	Kondo Racing Toyota	1'37.465	1'36.908
16	Jann Mardenborough	Team Impul Toyota	1'37.433	1'37.077
17	Naoki Yamamoto	Team Mugen Honda	1'37.228	-
18	Yuichi Nakayama	KCMG Toyota	1'38.878	1'37.623
19	Takashi Kogure	B-Max Honda	1'39.054	-