Race report

Super Formula Suzuka

Suzuka Super Formula: Matsushita beats Nojiri for maiden win

B-Max Honda driver Nobuharu Matsushita produced a masterful drive in treacherous conditions at Suzuka to pass long-time leader Tomoki Nojiri and claim his maiden Super Formula victory.

Rachit Thukral

Edited: Apr 24, 2022, 9:55 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Reigning champion Nojiri dominated the majority of the race from pole position, with the Mugen Honda driver's advantage over the rest of the field peaking at well over 10 seconds early in the 31-lap contest.

But the tide started shifting slowly when both Tadasuke Makino and Matsushita dispatched front row starter Kenta Yamashita in quick succession on laps 7 and 9 respectively, and set about chasing Nojiri for the victory.

By lap 15 Makino had brought the gap to Nojiri down to seven seconds, with Matsushita following him closely behind in third place.

Matsushita made multiple attempts at passing Makino for second, but the Dandelion driver was able to resist his advances each time and just about hold on to position.

However, just four laps from the finish, Matsushita was finally able to pull off a move over Makino into the final chicane, allowing him to chase after Nojiri for victory.

The 28-year-old wasted no time in closing the gap to the championship leader, reducing his lead from three seconds to 1.5s in the span of a single lap.

On the penultimate lap, Matsushita went around the outside of Nojiri into Turn 1, making the move stick to clinch a maiden victory in Japan’s premier single-seater series for himself and the B-Max Racing team.

Nojiri eventually finished five seconds off the lead in second, albeit with an enhanced 16-point lead in the championship, with Makino completing an-all Honda podium in third, matching his career-best result.

Sacha Fenestraz had a fairly lonely race en route to fourth, the Kondo driver not having the pace to fight for a podium position after being jumped by Matsushita and Makino on the opening lap.

KCMG secured a double points finish with Kamui Kobayashi leading home teammate Yuji Kunimoto in fifth after the team elected to use team orders to allow the former to chase after Fenestraz for fourth.

Fuji Race 1 winner Ryo Hirakawa completed an impressive recovery drive from 12th on the grid to finish seventh at the flag, having dropped down to 14th in the early stages of the race.

The Toyota Hypercar driver pulled off some great moves in the wet to limit the damage to his title hopes, passing a struggling Toshiki Oyu for seventh on lap 19 at the final chicane.

Oyu continued to tumble down the order in the final part of the race, allowing Nakajima Racing teammate Naoki Yamamoto to bag his first points of the season in ninth behind the second Dandelion car of Hiroki Otsu.

The list of points scorers was completed by Red Bull junior Ren Sato (Team Goh).

A minority of drivers elected to make a pitstop in a race where tyre change was not mandatory, with Yamashita the highest-place driver to do so en route to 16th.

Having dropped outside the podium positions early on after starting from the front row, Yamashita dived into the pits at the end of lap 11 for a fresh set of wet tyres.

But that strategy backfired when a Kondo mechanic dropped the jacks before the front-right tyre was bolted on properly, costing him crucial time and leaving him tumbling down the pack.

Suzuka Super Formula - Race results:

Cla # Driver Team Laps Gap 1 50 Japan Nobuharu Matsushita B-Max Racing Team 31 2 1 Japan Tomoki Nojiri Team Mugen 31 5.053 3 5 Japan Tadasuke Makino Japan Dandelion Racing 31 8.113 4 4 France Sacha Fenestraz Kondo Racing 31 18.419 5 7 Japan Kamui Kobayashi KCMG 31 21.894 6 18 Japan Yuji Kunimoto KCMG 31 44.604 7 20 Japan Ryo Hirakawa Team Impul 31 46.381 8 6 Japan Hiroki Otsu Japan Dandelion Racing 31 47.809 9 64 Japan Naoki Yamamoto TCS Nakajima Racing 31 51.564 10 53 Japan Ren Sato Team Goh 31 52.487 11 19 Japan Yuhi Sekiguchi Team Impul 31 53.087 12 39 Japan Sena Sakaguchi P.MU/CERUMO･INGING 31 1'03.453 13 65 Japan Toshiki Oyu TCS Nakajima Racing 31 1'13.308 14 15 Japan Ukyo Sasahara Team Mugen 31 1'17.697 15 36 France Giuliano Alesi Kuo VANTELIN TEAM TOM’S 31 1'18.337 16 3 Japan Kenta Yamashita Kondo Racing 31 1'19.426 17 12 Japan Nirei Fukuzumi ThreeBond Drago CORSE 31 1'28.460 18 37 Japan Ritomo Miyata Kuo VANTELIN TEAM TOM’S 31 1'28.956 19 14 Japan Kazuya Oshima docomo business ROOKIE 31 1'30.411 20 38 Japan Sho Tsuboi P.MU/CERUMO･INGING 30 1 Lap 21 55 Japan Atsushi Miyake Team Goh 25 6 Laps View full results

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Sasahara: Kunimoto block cost me "easy" front row start

Next article Matsushita: Maiden Super Formula win "not enough for me"

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

TV ratings released for NASCAR Cup season finale

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

4 h

TV ratings released for NASCAR Cup season finale

Chase Elliott's car chief leaves Hendrick for NASCAR Truck crew chief role

NASCAR Truck

NSTR NASCAR Truck

Homestead

5 h

Chase Elliott's car chief leaves Hendrick for NASCAR Truck crew chief role

The surprising convergence behind F1's increasingly competitive 2026 season

Formula 1

The surprising convergence behind F1's increasingly competitive 2026 season

“I was getting beat up” – How Daniel Ricciardo burned out on ‘humiliating’ F1 return

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1 9 h

“I was getting beat up” – How Daniel Ricciardo burned out on ‘humiliating’ F1 return

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts