Suzuka Super Formula: Kunimoto leads washed-out practice

Kunimoto's best time came towards the start of the one-hour session, which was delayed by 15 minutes owing to the late conclusion of the preceding WTCR practice session, the 2016 series champion posting a 1m55.296s in the treacherous conditions.

That was enough to beat Hiroaki Ishiura (Inging) by 0.261 seconds, while Kazuki Nakajima was third-fastest for TOM'S, 0.341s off the pace.

The rain intensified around 15 minutes into the session, which prompted a lengthy period of inactivity as all the drivers returned to the pits.

In the final 20 minutes, several drivers ventured out for sighting laps, and with 10 minutes to go the majority of the field were out on track, albeit mostly lapping over 5s off the pace.

No-one was able to improve in that time, leaving Kunimoto at the head of an all-Toyota top five, with title contenders Kenta Yamashita (Kondo) and Nick Cassidy (TOM'S) placing fourth and fifth behind the leading trio.

Best of the Honda runners was Dandelion Racing's Nirei Fukuzumi in sixth place.

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Of the other title hopefuls, Kamui Kobayashi (KCMG) was ninth-fastest, Naoki Yamamoto (Dandelion) was 12th and Alex Palou (Nakajima Racing) was well down in 19th, having completed only two laps all session and not at a representative pace.

At the opposing end of the spectrum was Red Bull-backed Team Mugen newcomer Juri Vips, who clocked 12 laps - having been one of the first to venture back out late in the session - on his way to the 17th-fastest time, just behind teammate Tomoki Nojiri.

Weather conditions are forecast to improve for the remainder of the weekend, with second practice set to take place early on Saturday morning ahead of qualifying.

UPDATE: Due to limited track activity on Friday, the second practice session on Saturday has been extended by 20 minutes.

Practice results:

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Yuji Kunimoto	Kondo Racing	01'55.296
2	Hiroaki Ishiura	JMS P.mu/cerumo-INGING	01'55.557	00.261
3	Kazuki Nakajima	Vantelin Team TOM'S	01'55.637	00.341
4	Kenta Yamashita	Kondo Racing	01'55.812	00.516
5	Nick Cassidy	Vantelin Team TOM'S	01'56.007	00.711
6	Nirei Fukuzumi	DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing	01'56.011	00.715
7	Ryo Hirakawa	Team Impul	01'56.257	00.961
8	Sho Tsuboi	JMS P.mu/cerumo-INGING	01'57.548	02.252
9	Kamui Kobayashi	carrozzeria Team KCMG	01'57.684	02.388
10	Yuhi Sekiguchi	Team Impul	01'57.941	02.645
11	Lucas Auer	B-MAX with Motopark	01'58.719	03.423
12	Naoki Yamamoto	DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing	01'59.488	04.192
13	Koudai Tsukakoshi	Real Racing	01'59.555	04.259
14	Yuichi Nakayama	UOMO Sunoco Team LeMans	02'00.459	05.163
15	Kazuya Oshima	UOMO Sunoco Team LeMans	02'01.156	05.860
16	Tomoki Nojiri	Team Mugen	02'01.366	06.070
17	Jüri Vips	Team Mugen	02'02.794	07.498
18	Harrison Newey	B-MAX with Motopark	02'05.236	09.940
19	Alex Palou	TCS Nakajima Racing	02'08.860	13.564
20	Tadasuke Makino	TCS Nakajima Racing	02'15.087	19.791
View full results