Qualifying report

Super Formula Suzuka II

Suzuka Super Formula: Yamamoto takes pole for decider

Naoki Yamamoto scored a vital pole position for Sunday's Super Formula title-decider, scoring a bonus point and edging towards championship leader Nick Cassidy in the process.

Jamie Klein

Edited: Dec 29, 2018, 11:12 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Naoki Yamamoto, Mugen

Mugen driver Yamamoto topped all three segments in qualifying on his way to his second pole of 2018, ending up with a margin of 0.284s over closest challenger Kenta Yamashita in the pole shootout.

It means Yamamoto moves within four points of Cassidy, who qualified fourth, just over half a second off the pace.

The other title protagonist, Hiroaki Ishiura, was knocked out in Q2 and will start Sunday's race from 11th on the grid.

There was drama early in Q1 as Tomoki Nojiri's Dandelion-run machine dumped oil on the circuit and then ignited in the pitlane, prompting a red flag and a delay of 14 minutes while marshals cleared the mess.

Yamamoto had already set the best time of 1m38.591s before then, which remained the best time through the session.

The 30-year-old lowered the bar to a 1m38.477s in Q2, edging out Koudai Tsukakoshi by under a tenth, and then became the only driver to dip beneath the 1m38s barrier in Q3 with a pole time of 1m37.909s.

Cassidy's Kondo Racing teammate was Yamamoto's nearest rival, falling 0.284s short of pole but beating Kazuki Nakajima (TOM'S) to a front row spot by slightly over a tenth.

Behind fourth-placed Cassidy, Tsukakoshi (Real Racing) and Ryo Hirakawa (Impul) will share the third row, followed by Kamui Kobayashi (KCMG) and Narain Karthikeyan (Nakajima Racing).

Completing the top 10 on the grid are Ishiura's Inging teammate Yuji Kunimoto and Nobuharu Matsushita (Dandelion), who along with Ishiura missed out on a spot in Q3.

Outside title contender Yuhi Sekiguchi was eliminated in Q1 after making a mistake on his hot lap, and will start 17th.

Like Impul teammate Hirakawa, Sekiguchi - who is 12 points down on Cassidy with 13 available in the race - has to win on Sunday to have any chance of winning the title.

Qualifying results:

Pos. Driver Team/Engine Time Delay 1 Naoki Yamamoto Mugen/Honda 1'37.909 - 2 Kenta Yamashita Kondo/Toyota 1'38.193 0.284 3 Kazuki Nakajima TOM'S/Toyota 1'38.300 0.391 4 Nick Cassidy Kondo/Toyota 1'38.435 0.526 5 Koudai Tsukakoshi Real/Honda 1'38.524 0.615 6 Ryo Hirakawa Impul/Toyota 1'38.553 0.644 7 Kamui Kobayashi KCMG/Toyota 1'42.751 4.842 8 Narain Karthikeyan Nakajima/Honda 1'58.156 20.247 Q3 cut-off: 1'38.570 9 Yuji Kunimoto Inging/Toyota 1'38.597 0.688 10 Nobuharu Matsushita Dandelion/Honda 1'38.680 0.771 11 Hiroaki Ishiura Inging/Toyota 1'38.761 0.852 12 Kazuya Oshima LeMans/Toyota 1'38.786 0.877 13 Nirei Fukuzumi Mugen/Honda 1'38.888 0.979 14 James Rossiter TOM'S/Toyota 1'39.220 1.311 Q2 cut-off: 1'39.479 15 Tom Dillmann LeMans/Toyota 1'39.492 1.583 16 Takuya Izawa Nakajima/Honda 1'39.654 1.745 17 Yuhi Sekiguchi Impul/Toyota 1'39.717 1.808 18 Katsumasa Chiyo B-Max/Honda 1'39.717 1.808 19 Tomoki Nojiri Dandelion/Honda 2'04.858 26.949

The final race of the 2018 Super Formula season will be broadcast live on Motorsport.tv from 0505 GMT on Sunday.

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 Super Formula's five-way fight set to reach climax

Next article Late-night parts run transformed Cassidy's Suzuka fortunes

Top Comments

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

View More & Comment

Latest news

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

NASCAR Truck

NSTR NASCAR Truck

Homestead

12 min

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 4 h

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

Myers Riley Motorsports adds Andretti alongside returning Fraga for 2027 IMSA GTD campaign

IMSA

IMSA IMSA 4 h

Myers Riley Motorsports adds Andretti alongside returning Fraga for 2027 IMSA GTD campaign

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