Hirakawa heads de Oliveira, Gasly on final Fuji test day
Ryo Hirakawa topped the final day of Super Formula testing in Fuji, which was disrupted by snowfall and excessively low temperatures.
Photo by: Toyota Racing
Poor weather continued to plague the second pre-season Super Formula test, with the organisers having to cancel the morning session, leaving drivers with just three hours of running in the afternoon.
When the action finally began, Hirakawa led home a one-two finish for Team TOM’S, edging out Joao Paulo de Oliveira by two tenths of a second with a time of 1m21.628s.
The two drivers are subbing for Andre Lotterer and Kamui Kobayashi, who are taking part in the WEC Prologue test in Monza with Porsche and Toyota respectively.
Meanwhile, Red Bull junior Pierre Gasly was third fastest in the session, and again the best of the Honda-powered drivers, three tenths off the pace of Rossiter.
Jann Mardenborough was next up in fourth, having briefly held the top spot in the session.
2013 Super Formula champion Naoki Yamamoto was fifth-fastest with a time of 1m22.073s, while Hiroaki Ishiura had to be content with sixth place after leading nearly half the session.
KCMG’s Yuichi Nakayama was seventh ahead of Dandelion driver Takuya Izawa, with Narain Karthikeyan and Koudai Tsukakoshi completing the top 10.
Despite the low temperatures compromising the grip levels, Tomoki Nojiri caused the only notable disruption to the session, the Japanese driver stopping at halfway point and bringing out the red flags.
Day 2 Results:
Po. | Driver | Team | Time/Gap | Lap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Ryo Hirakawa | TEAM TOM'S | 1:21.628 | 98 |
2 | Joao Paulo de Oliveira | TEAM TOM'S | 0.180 | 91 |
3 | Pierre Gasly | TEAM MUGEN | 0.328 | 91 |
4 | Jann Mardenborough | TEAM IMPUL | 0.445 | 119 |
5 | Naoki Yamamoto | TEAM MUGEN | 0.453 | 116 |
6 | Hiroaki Ishiura | INGING | 0.552 | 90 |
7 | Yuichi Nakayama | KCMG | 1.034 | 103 |
8 | Takuya Izawa | DANDELION RACING | 1.065 | 81 |
9 | Narain Karthikeyan | NAKAJIMA RACING | 1.225 | 94 |
10 | Koudai Tsukakoshi | REAL RACING | 1.332 | 84 |
11 | Yuhi Sekiguchi | TEAM IMPUL | 1.336 | 73 |
12 | Daisuke Nakajima | NAKAJIMA RACING | 1.525 | 104 |
13 | Kazuya Oshima | TEAM LEMANS | 1.565 | 74 |
14 | Tomoki Nojiri | DANDELION RACING | 1.649 | 103 |
15 | Nick Cassidy | KONDO RACING | 1.677 | 90 |
16 | Yuji Tachikawa | INGING | 1.704 | 107 |
17 | Takashi Kogure | B-Max Racing team | 1.761 | 78 |
18 | Kenta Yamashita | KONDO RACING | 1.841 | 109 |
19 | Kohei Hirate | TEAM LEMANS | 2.103 | 81 |
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