Tsuboi leads Nojiri on first day of Super Formula testing

Tsuboi, who stays at Inging for a fourth season this year after a disastrous 2021 campaign, posted his best lap of the day of 1m35.470s during the two-hour morning session, beating reigning champion Tomoki Nojiri by 0.060s.

That benchmark was some way underneath both of the pole times set during last year's two Suzuka rounds, and more than half a second faster than the equivalent time in last December's post-season test at the Japanese Grand Prix venue.

Ideal track conditions after two days of SUPER GT testing and the Suzuka Fan Thanks Day event, plus a strong tailwind on a cool, overcast day may explain the major improvement in laptimes.

Behind Mugen driver Nojiri, Hiroki Otsu was third-quickest for his new team Dandelion Racing, a little under two tenths off the pace set by Tsuboi.

Sacha Fenestraz was fourth-fastest aboard his new-look Kondo Racing machine, followed by Yuhi Sekiguchi (Impul) and Tadasuke Makino (Dandelion), making it three cars inside the top six each for Toyota and Honda.

Just two of the 21 drivers present improved on their morning times in the afternoon session, which was paced by three-time champion Naoki Yamamoto (Nakajima Racing) on a 1m36.090s, narrowly ahead of Tsuboi and Ritomo Miyata (TOM'S).

 

Besides Yamamoto, who moved up one position overall to 10th, the only other improver was Miyata, who remained in 13th overall ahead of new full-time TOM'S teammate Giuliano Alesi in 14th.

Toyota FIA World Endurance Championship driver Ryo Hirakawa was a low-key 16th-fastest in the second Impul machine, ending his day with an off at the final chicane shortly before the end of the afternoon session.

Hirakawa's WEC squadmate Kamui Kobayashi (KCMG) also hit trouble as he spun exiting the hairpin in the afternoon, bringing out the day's second red flag and causing the session to be extended by 10 minutes.

Team Goh rookie Atsushi Miyake caused the first stoppage with an off-track excursion at Dunlop corner, leading to a five-minute delay to the morning session.

Testing continues with two more sessions on Tuesday, with Super Formula Lights also taking to the track for the first time this year.

Suzuka testing times:

Pos.	Driver	Team/Engine	Morning	Afternoon
1	Sho Tsuboi	Inging/Toyota	1'35.470	1'36.121
2	Tomoki Nojiri	Mugen/Honda	1'35.530	1'36.579
3	Hiroki Otsu	Dandelion/Honda	1'35.653	1'36.316
4	Sacha Fenestraz	Kondo/Toyota	1'35.707	1'36.767
5	Yuhi Sekiguchi	Impul/Toyota	1'35.819	1'37.832
6	Tadasuke Makino	Dandelion/Honda	1'35.868	1'38.268
7	Kenta Yamashita	Kondo/Toyota	1'35.878	1'36.558
8	Kamui Kobayashi	KCMG/Toyota	1'35.963	1'38.458
9	Toshiki Oyu	Nakajima/Honda	1'35.969	1'36.239
10	Naoki Yamamoto	Nakajima/Honda	1'36.158	1'36.090
11	Nirei Fukuzumi	Drago Corse/Honda	1'36.154	1'36.790
12	Nobuharu Matsushita	B-Max/Honda	1'36.167	1'37.094
13	Ritomo Miyata	TOM'S Toyota	1'36.219	1'36.167
14	Giuliano Alesi	TOM'S Toyota	1'36.253	1'36.511
15	Kazuya Oshima	Rookie/Toyota	1'36.279	1'38.094
16	Ryo Hirakawa	Impul/Toyota	1'36.327	1'38.165
17	Ren Sato	Goh/Honda	1'36.442	1'36.662
18	Ukyo Sasahara	Mugen/Honda	1'36.664	1'37.121
19	Sena Sakaguchi	Inging/Toyota	1'36.759	1'37.351
20	Yuji Kunimoto	KCMG/Toyota	1'36.854	1'36.986
21	Atsushi Miyake	Goh/Honda	1'37.335	1'37.677