Super Formula
Suzuka Super Formula: Nojiri wins as 130R crash ends race early
Tomoki Nojiri has been declared the winner of the penultimate race of the Super Formula season at Suzuka after a high-speed crash at 130R brought proceedings to a halt after just five laps.
Rachit Thukral
Edited: Oct 28, 2023, 4:41 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Hiroki Otsu was trying to make a move on Ukyo Sasahara for 17th place on lap 4 when the two came to blows at 130R, with both spinning heavily into the barriers.
While Otsu’s Nakajima car had a normal impact with the barriers, Sasahara’s TOM'S machine appeared to fly up into the catch fencing.
Subsequent photo evidence showed the chassis finally came to rest near Degner 1, just before the underpass of Suzuka's famous crossover, with the rear of the car being torn off the car and staying at the 130R barriers.
Otsu was seen walking away from the car in the aftermath of the crash, while Sasahara was reported as conscious and taken to the medical centre for checks.
A safety car was immediately deployed to neutralise the field, before a decision was taken to stop the race altogether, with all remaining cars taking to the grid.
Marshals began work on repairing the barriers, but the scale of the task quickly became clear to the organisers.
After a wait of 30 minutes, it was announced at 3:30pm local time that the race won’t be resumed, with only half points awarded to the top 10 finishers.
With results taken from the end of lap 3 of 31, Nojiri was declared the winner of the race, claiming his third success of the season after previous triumphs at the Fuji opener and Motegi.
Sasahara’s team-mate and championship leader Ritomo Miyata finished second after repassing the Dandelion entry of Kakunoshin Ota at the start of the second lap, having previously slipped behind him with a poor getaway from the front row.
Despite being overtaken by Miyata, third-place for Ota marked his first career podium in Super Formula - and only his second-ever points finish following a sixth-place result at Fuji in July.
Photo by: Masahide Kamio
Ukyo Sasahara, #36 VANTELIN TEAM TOM’S
Tadasuke Makino was classified fourth in the other Dandelion entry, ahead of Inging rival Sho Tsuboi.
Red Bull junior Liam Lawson had finished fifth on the road after passing Tsuboi at Turn 1 on lap four, but with the final results taken from the end of lap three, Lawson was docked one place, leaving him sixth in the final order.
This was his second-worst finish of the season and followed a disastrous race at Motegi where he collided with team-mate Nojiri and ended up outside the points in 13th.
Lawson had started the race in seventh after a disappointing qualifying session in which he was hamstrung by a lack of fresh tyres, a legacy of his Motegi crash.
Ryo Hirakawa finished seventh for Impul behind Tsuboi, while Kamui Kobayashi (KCMG), Nirei Fukuzumi (ThreeBond) and Ren Sato (Nakajima) completed the points scorers.
With the result rolling back to lap three, Otsu was classified in 17th place, but Sasahara was demoted to last owing to a 30-second time penalty awarded for triggering the 130R incident.
With only Sunday’s finale to run, Miyata holds a 6.5-point lead over defending two-time championship Nojiri, with Lawson slipping 15 behind after scoring only 2.5 points in Saturday’s truncated race.
Suzuka Super Formula - race results (Round 8):
Main Information Additional Data Driver Info
Driver Info
Main Information
Cla Driver # Laps Time Interval km/h 1 T. Nojiri Team Mugen 1 3
5'05.621
2 R. Miyata Vantelin Team TOM'S 37 3
+0.913
5'06.534
0.913 3 K. Ohta Dandelion Racing 6 3
+1.799
5'07.420
0.886 4 T. Makino Dandelion Racing 5 3
+3.661
5'09.282
1.862 5 S. Tsuboi P.MU/CERUMO･INGING 38 3
+3.989
5'09.610
0.328 6 L. Lawson Team Mugen 15 3
+4.829
5'10.450
0.840 7 R. Hirakawa ITOCHU ENEX TEAM IMPUL 20 3
+5.696
5'11.317
0.867 8 K. Kobayashi Team KCMG 7 3
+6.767
5'12.388
1.071 9 N. Fukuzumi ThreeBond Racing 12 3
+7.860
5'13.481
1.093 10 R. Sato TCS Nakajima Racing 65 3
+8.532
5'14.153
0.672 11 K. Yamashita Kondo Racing 3 3
+9.529
5'15.150
0.997 12 Y. Sekiguchi ITOCHU ENEX TEAM IMPUL 19 3
+10.022
5'15.643
0.493 13 N. Matsushita B-Max Racing Team 50 3
+10.485
5'16.106
0.463 14 S. Sakaguchi P.MU/CERUMO･INGING 39 3
+11.734
5'17.355
1.249 15 K. Kotaka Kondo Racing 4 3
+12.521
5'18.142
0.787 16 Y. Kunimoto Team KCMG 18 3
+13.126
5'18.747
0.605 17 H. Otsu TCS Nakajima Racing 64 3
+13.681
5'19.302
0.555 18
R. Okusa TGM Grand Prix
53 3
+14.201
5'19.822
0.520 19 K. Oshima docomo business ROOKIE 14 3
+14.574
5'20.195
0.373 20 C. Bolukbasi TGM Grand Prix 55 3
+15.715
5'21.336
1.141 21 R. Hyman B-Max Racing Team 51 3
+16.652
5'22.273
0.937 22 U. Sasahara Vantelin Team TOM'S 36 3
+43.353
5'48.974
26.701 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
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Suzuka Super Formula: Nojiri takes vital pole, Lawson P7
Next article Lawson laments Suzuka red flag as Super Formula title hopes fade
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Rachit Thukral
Sebastien Bourdais hopes latest WEC success will remind teams of his value
WEC
WEC
Monza
19 min
Sebastien Bourdais hopes latest WEC success will remind teams of his value
Why Corvette’s new LMGT3 champion Jonny Edgar has a bright future
WEC
WEC
Monza
21 h
Why Corvette’s new LMGT3 champion Jonny Edgar has a bright future
Latest news
Sebastien Bourdais hopes latest WEC success will remind teams of his value
WEC
WEC WEC
Monza
19 min
Sebastien Bourdais hopes latest WEC success will remind teams of his value
"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
1 h
"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027
Iker Lecuona felt significant differences between Ducati's GP25 and GP26
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
2 h
Iker Lecuona felt significant differences between Ducati's GP25 and GP26
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
Subscribe