Autopolis Super Formula: Fukuzumi fastest in practice

Fresh from his first win in SUPER GT's top class at Motegi last weekend, Fukuzumi posted a 1m24.450s in the final minutes of the hour-long afternoon session at Autopolis to top the times by 0.162s ahead of championship leader Ryo Hirakawa.

Okayama race winner Sho Tsuboi had topped the morning's running with a 1m24.714s, which blew away the previous 1m25.799s benchmark set by Kamui Kobayashi during qualifying in 2018 - when the previous-generation SF14 car was still in use.

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Tsuboi's time went unchallenged for the bulk of the afternoon session, only falling after a late red flag period caused by two-time champion Naoki Yamamoto parking up his Dandelion machine at Turn 5 with a mechanical problem.

With two minutes left on the clock, Impul man Hirakawa was first to go faster than Tsuboi with a 1m24.612s, but that was soon bettered by Fukuzumi's final flyer.

Inging driver Tsuboi managed to improve on his morning time with a 1m24.645s, but fell 0.195s shy of Fukuzumi.

Sho Tsuboi（JMS P.MU／CERUMO・INGING）

Photo by: Masahide Kamio

Three more Honda-powered drivers completed the top six, with Tadasuke Makino (Nakajima Racing) taking fourth ahead of Tomoki Nojiri (Team Mugen) and Toshiki Oyu (Nakajima).

Ritomo Miyata, deputising for the absent Kazuki Nakajima at TOM'S, was second-fastest behind Tsuboi in the morning but didn't improve in the afternoon, ending up seventh overall, ahead of Kondo Racing's Sacha Fenestraz.

In his first Super Formula race weekend since the 2018 Suzuka finale, Nobuharu Matsushita was ninth-fastest for B-Max Racing ahead of Yuji Kunimoto (KCMG).

Yamamoto ended up 13th on the combined timesheets on the strength of his morning effort, one place ahead of reigning champion Nick Cassidy (TOM'S).

Last year's Autopolis winner Yuhi Sekiguchi's struggles continued in 17th place, one place behind series debutant Charles Milesi (B-Max), while returnee Tatiana Calderon (Drago Corse) propped up the timesheets in 20th place overall.

Qualifying groups determined

As per the first three races of the season, the drivers will be split between two groups in Q1 on Sunday morning, collectively fighting over 14 spots in Q2. The seven fastest drivers out of the 10 in each group will progress to Q2.

Group A: Nick Cassidy, Sacha Fenestraz, Nirei Fukuzumi, Yuichi Nakayama, Tatiana Calderon, Tomoki Nojiri, Yuki Sekiguchi, Hiroaki Ishiura, Nobuharu Matsushita, Tadasuke Makino.

Group B: Kenta Yamashita, Naoki Yamamoto, Kazuya Oshima, Ukyo Sasahara, Yuji Kunimoto, Ryo Hirakawa, Ritomo Miyata, Sho Tsuboi, Charles Milesi, Toshiki Oyu.

Practice results (afternoon session only):

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	6	Nirei Fukuzumi	DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing	1'24.450
2	20	Ryo Hirakawa	ITOCHU ENEX TEAM IMPUL	1'24.612	0.162
3	39	Sho Tsuboi	JMS P.mu/cerumo-INGING	1'24.645	0.195
4	64	Tadasuke Makino	TCS Nakajima Racing	1'24.874	0.424
5	16	Tomoki Nojiri	Team Mugen	1'24.879	0.429
6	65	Toshiki Oyu	TCS Nakajima Racing	1'24.890	0.440
7	4	Sacha Fenestraz	Kondo Racing	1'25.001	0.551
8	36	Ritomo Miyata	Vantelin Team TOM'S	1'25.035	0.585
9	50	Nobuharu Matsushita	Buzz Racing with B-Max	1'25.111	0.661
10	3	Kenta Yamashita	Kondo Racing	1'25.151	0.701
11	18	Yuji Kunimoto	carrozzeria Team KCMG	1'25.275	0.825
12	15	Ukyo Sasahara	Team Mugen	1'25.322	0.872
13	1	Nick Cassidy	Vantelin Team TOM'S	1'25.678	1.228
14	38	Hiroaki Ishiura	JMS P.mu/cerumo-INGING	1'25.719	1.269
15	51	Charles Milesi	Buzz Racing with B-Max	1'25.764	1.314
16	19	Yuhi Sekiguchi	ITOCHU ENEX TEAM IMPUL	1'25.846	1.396
17	7	Yuichi Nakayama	carrozzeria Team KCMG	1'26.155	1.705
18	14	Kazuya Oshima	ROOKIE Racing	1'26.691	2.241
19	12	Tatiana Calderon	ThreeBond Drago CORSE	1'27.242	2.792
20	5	Naoki Yamamoto	DoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing	1'28.132	3.682
View full results