Tsuboi stays on top as Super Formula's Suzuka test ends

The Inging Toyota driver, who caused a surprise by topping the timesheets on Monday, was once again the driver to beat, setting a best time of 1m35.769s during the two-hour morning session.

That was almost exactly three tenths slower than his best time from Monday, with the reduced pace due in part to somewhat higher temperatures on a clear, sunny day at the Japanese Grand Prix venue.

Nakajima Racing's Toshiki Oyu, who paced last December's post-season test at Suzuka, was second-quickest and the only other driver to break into the 1m35s, 0.169s off the pace of Tsuboi.

Yuhi Sekiguchi was third-fastest for defending teams' champion Impul, ahead of Dandelion newcomer Hiroki Otsu, three-time champion Naoki Yamamoto (Nakajima) and the second Impul car of Ryo Hirakawa.

Much like on Monday, the bulk of the best times were set in the morning, with afternoon pacesetter Ritomo Miyata (TOM'S) one of just four drivers of the 21 present to improve in the second session.

Ritomo Miyata, Kuo VANTELIN TEAM TOM’S

Photo by: Masahide Kamio

Miyata's best time of 1m36.466s put him 0.247s clear of Kondo Racing's Kenta Yamashita, but only seventh overall, with Yamashita eighth on the strength of his morning time.

Nirei Fukuzumi was an encouraging ninth for the minnow Drago Corse squad, while the second TOM'S machine of Giuliano Alesi completed the top 10.

Reigning champion Tomoki Nojiri (Mugen), second on Monday, could only manage the 11th-fastest time on Tuesday, the best part of a second slower than Tsuboi.

Besides Miyata, the only other drivers to improve in the afternoon were Sacha Fenestraz (Kondo), Tadasuke Makino (Dandelion) and Tsuboi's Inging teammate Sena Sakaguchi.

Fenestraz caused the day's first red flag when he went off at the S-curve in the morning, albeit sustaining little to no damage in the impact, which led to five minutes of extra running being added to the session.

Makino was likewise in the wars at the end of that session as he made light contact with Kamui Kobayashi's KCMG car approaching the hairpin, ruining his hot lap and causing his engine to shut off in the process. However, he parked up on the inside of the hairpin, and the session stayed green.

The second and final stoppage came in the afternoon when B-Max Racing's Nobuharu Matsushita spun exiting the hairpin, but he was able to keep the engine running and return to the pits under his own steam once the car had been recovered.

Super Formula Lights also held its first running of the year during the break between the two Super Formula sessions. TOM'S driver and Toyota junior Seita Nonaka set the pace ahead of Honda protege Kakunoshin Ota (Toda Racing) and Hibiki Taira (TOM'S).

Another TOM'S driver, Kazuto Kotaka, is sitting out this week's test following a positive COVID-19 test.

Super Formula Lights testing continues with two more sessions on Wednesday, while the next running for Super Formula takes place at Fuji Speedway on March 22-23.

Suzuka testing times:

Pos.	Driver	Team/Engine	Morning	Afternoon
1	Sho Tsuboi	Inging/Toyota	1'35.769	1'40.645
2	Toshiki Oyu	Nakajima/Honda	1'35.938	1'36.799
3	Yuhi Sekiguchi	Impul/Toyota	1'36.046	1'37.960
4	Hiroki Otsu	Dandelion/Honda	1'36.305	1'39.605
5	Naoki Yamamoto	Nakajima/Honda	1'36.342	1'36.908
6	Ryo Hirakawa	Impul/Toyota	1'36.388	1'36.800
7	Ritomo Miyata	TOM'S/Toyota	1'36.900	1'36.466
8	Kenta Yamashita	Kondo/Toyota	1'36.474	1'36.713
9	Nirei Fukuzumi	Drago Corse/Honda	1'36.500	1'40.449
10	Giuliano Alesi	TOM'S/Toyota	1'36.517	1'36.819
11	Tomoki Nojiri	Mugen/Honda	1'36.604	1'39.498
12	Yuji Kunimoto	KCMG/Toyota	1'36.704	1'37.234
13	Ren Sato	Goh/Honda	1'36.709	1'39.987
14	Kazuya Oshima	Rookie/Toyota	1'36.925	1'37.818
15	Tadasuke Makino	Dandelion/Honda	1'37.316	1'36.980
16	Sacha Fenestraz	Kondo/Toyota	1'38.863	1'37.037
17	Atsushi Miyake	Goh/Honda	1'37.097	1'40.260
18	Kamui Kobayashi	KCMG/Toyota	1'37.104	1'37.162
19	Sena Sakaguchi	Inging/Toyota	1'37.946	1'37.135
20	Nobuharu Matsushita	B-Max/Honda	1'37.301	1'38.009
21	Ukyo Sasahara	Mugen/Honda	1'37.344	1'38.449