Nojiri leads Yamamoto on first day of Suzuka Super Formula test

Driving the Red Bull-liveried #1 car for Team Mugen, Nojiri was the only driver to break into the 1m35s on Monday, as he posted a 1m35.955s in the closing stages of the two-hour afternoon session.

That was faster than he had managed in qualifying for the final round of the 2022 season at Suzuka in the previous-generation SF19, although it fell short of Sho Tsuboi's best time set in pre-season testing this time last year.

Three-time champion Naoki Yamamoto led a two-three for Nakajima Racing with a 1m36.027s ahead of his new team-mate Ren Sato, continuing the team's encouraging form from last December's post-season test.

Kamui Kobayashi was the best of the Toyota runners for KCMG in fourth place, having sat atop the timesheets before the final flurry of improvements at the end of the session, ahead of Ryo Hirakawa for Team Impul.

Toshiki Oyu enjoyed a strong first day of official testing with the reborn TGM Grand Prix team, ending up eighth-fastest behind Tadasuke Makino (Dandelion) and Tsuboi (Inging).

Red Bull junior driver Liam Lawson was the best of the rookies in ninth place with a best time of 1m36.770s, around eight tenths off the pace of his Mugen team-mate Nojiri.

Completing the top 10 was Ukyo Sasahara, who is standing in for an injured Kenta Yamashita at Kondo Racing for this test.

Sasahara had the only real accident of note of the day during the two-hour morning session when he suffered a crash at Turn 6, bringing out the red flags. His car was repaired in time for him to tackle the final 45 minutes of the afternoon session.

The morning session was led by Yamamoto ahead of TOM'S driver Ritomo Miyata and Dandelion Racing substitute Hiroki Otsu, who were both among a handful of drivers who didn't set better laps in the afternoon.

Naoki Yamamoto, TCS NAKAJIMA RACING

Photo by: Masahide Kamio

Otsu is replacing rookie Kakunoshin Ota, who suffered a heavy crash last Friday during SUPER GT testing at Suzuka but like Yamashita was present for the test to observe from the sidelines. 

Of the other rookies, TGM's Cem Bolukbasi was 20th-fastest, while B-Max man Raoul Hyman propped up the timesheets in 22nd behind the second TOM'S car of Giuliano Alesi.

Super Formula testing continues on Tuesday with another pair of two-hour sessions planned.

Suzuka testing times:

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team/Engine	Morning	Afternoon
1	1	Tomoki Nojiri	Mugen/Honda	1'37.424	1'35.955
2	64	Naoki Yamamoto	Nakajima/Honda	1'37.030	1'36.027
3	65	Ren Sato	Nakajima/Honda	1'37.593	1'36.083
4	7	Kamui Kobayashi	KCMG/Toyota	1'37.462	1'36.266
5	20	Ryo Hirakawa	Impul/Toyota	1'37.507	1'36.462
6	5	Tadasuke Makino	Dandelion/Honda	1'37.485	1'36.636
7	38	Sho Tsuboi	Inging/Toyota	1'37.535	1'36.640
8	53	Toshiki Oyu	TGM/Honda	1'37.932	1'36.699
9	15	Liam Lawson	Mugen/Honda	1'37.923	1'36.770
10	3	Ukyo Sasahara	Kondo/Toyota	1'39.830	1'36.789
11	4	Kazuto Kotaka	Kondo/Toyota	1'38.770	1'36.824
12	19	Yuhi Sekiguchi	Impul/Toyota	1'38.290	1'36.974
13	12	Nirei Fukuzumi	ThreeBond/Honda	1'37.939	1'37.092
14	37	Ritomo Miyata	TOM'S/Toyota	1'37.116	1'37.273
15	6	Hiroki Otsu	Dandelion/Honda	1'37.217	1'38.392
16	18	Yuji Kunimoto	KCMG/Toyota	1'37.576	1'37.363
17	50	Nobuharu Matsushita	B-Max/Honda	1'37.379	1'38.653
18	14	Kazuya Oshima	Rookie/Toyota	1'38.223	1'37.555
19	39	Sena Sakaguchi	Inging/Toyota	1'37.912	1'38.743
20	55	Cem Bolukbasi	TGM/Honda	1'38.416	1'37.972
21	36	Giuliano Alesi	TOM'S/Toyota	1'39.504	1'38.030
22	51	Raoul Hyman	B-Max/Honda	1'39.083	1'38.214