Fukuzumi fastest as Super Formula testing concludes

Ex-Formula 2 driver Fukuzumi posted his quickest time of the day during the two-hour morning session of 1m21.687s to go 0.422s clear of nearest rival Toshiki Oyu for Nakajima Racing.

However, Oyu's best time from Tuesday's opening day of running, a 1m21.371s, stood as the fastest of the test overall.

Fukuzumi and Oyu's morning times put them at the top of the standings for the day, as Ryo Hirakawa (Impul Toyota) topped the afternoon session on a 1m22.148s to slot into third overall.

Ritomo Miyata (TOM'S) was fourth-fastest and top rookie, leading the afternoon session until Hirakawa set a late improvement with just six minutes left on the clock.

Tomoki Nojiri completed the top five for Honda squad Mugen after setting the third-fastest time for the morning session.

Next up were three afternoon improvers, with Kazuki Nakajima sixth for TOM'S ahead of Sho Tsuboi (Inging) and Naoki Yamamoto, who remained some way off the pace of his Nakajima Racing teammate Oyu in eighth.

Kazuko Kotaka, replacing the absent Kamui Kobayashi at KCMG, was ninth overall ahead of Dandelion super-sub Ukyo Sasahara, both drivers setting their best efforts in the morning.

After causing two red flags yesterday, Yuhi Sekiguchi (Impul) was the cause of another interruption during the morning session with a little over 10 minutes left on the clock, coasting to a halt at the pitlane entry after his kill-switch was inadvertently activated.

That brought the morning session to an early end, and the afternoon session was extended by 10 minutes as a result, with Sekiguchi ending up 11th-fastest.

Tatiana Calderon (Drago Corse) stopped on track earlier in the morning, causing the first red flag of the day, the cause of which was traced to a loose seal that led to a transmission leak.

The Colombian racer propped up the timesheets in 18th place, a little under two seconds off the pace.

Fuji testing times:

Pos.	Driver	Team/Engine	Morning	Afternoon
1	Nirei Fukuzumi	Dandelion/Honda	1m21.687s	1m22.795s
2	Toshiki Oyu	Nakajima/Honda	1m22.109s	1m22.916s
3	Ryo Hirakawa	Impul/Toyota	1m22.254s	1m22.148s
4	Ritomo Miyata	TOM'S/Toyota	1m23.233s	1m22.164s
5	Tomoki Nojiri	Mugen/Honda	1m22.205s	1m22.578s
6	Kazuki Nakajima	TOM'S/Toyota	1m22.918s	1m22.269s
7	Sho Tsuboi	Inging/Toyota	1m22.390s	1m22.333s
8	Naoki Yamamoto	Nakajima/Honda	1m22.686s	1m22.390s
9	Kazuto Kotaka	KCMG/Toyota	1m22.437s	1m22.893s
10	Ukyo Sasahara	Dandelion/Honda	1m22.457s	1m22.913s
11	Yuhi Sekiguchi	Impul/Toyota	1m22.489s	1m22.509s
12	Kenta Yamashita	Kondo/Toyota	1m23.045s	1m22.585s
13	Hiroki Otsu	Mugen/Honda	1m22.731s	1m22.893s
14	Sena Sakaguchi	Inging/Toyota	1m23.028s	1m22.786s
15	Kazuya Oshima	Rookie Racing/Toyota	1m22.946s	1m22.808s
16	Yuichi Nakayama	Kondo/Toyota	1m22.820s	1m23.327s
17	Yuji Kunimoto	KCMG/Toyota	1m23.550s	1m23.020s
18	Tatiana Calderon	Drago Corse/Honda	1m23.609s	1m23.737s