Motegi Super Formula: Oyu leads practice, Nojiri ninth

Oyu set the fastest time of 1m31.221s at the very end of the 90-minute session on Friday afternoon, which represents the only on-track running ahead of qualifying for Saturday's seventh round of the season.

That will be followed by the eighth round on Sunday, with qualifying again taking place that morning before the race.

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Honda-backed Oyu moved to the top of the timesheets amid a flurry of improvements in the closing minutes of the session, beating Sho Tsuboi (Inging)'s best effort of 1m31.475s by 0.254 seconds.

Ryo Hirakawa (Impul), a two-time Motegi winner, was third-fastest on a 1m31.520s, ahead of teammate Yuhi Sekiguchi and another Toyota-powered driver, KCMG man Yuji Kunimoto.

Hiroki Otsu was second-best of the Honda contingent in sixth ahead of Dandelion Racing teammate Tadasuke Makino and Nirei Fukuzumi (Drago Corse).

Points leader Tomoki Nojiri could conceivably wrap up the title at Motegi this weekend as he aims to build on his 29-point lead over nearest rival Hirakawa, but the Mugen driver could only manage the ninth-fastest time, just under seven tenths off the pace.

Tomoki Nojiri, TEAM MUGEN

Photo by: Masahide Kamio

Nojiri's teammate Ukyo Sasahara, who won his first Super Formula race at Fuji last month, was 11th-fastest, with Naoki Yamamoto (Nakajima) splitting the two Mugen drivers in 10th place.

Sacha Fenestraz, who sits third in the standings, propped up the order in 21st for Kondo Racing with a best time two seconds off the pace. That was due to an engine issue that prevented him from doing a qualifying simulation on fresh tyres.

Qualifying for Saturday's seventh round of the season is slated to take place at 9.05am local time (GMT +9), with the race following at 2.30pm.

Motegi Super Formula - Practice results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	65	Toshiki Oyu	TCS Nakajima Racing	1'31.221
2	38	Sho Tsuboi	P.MU/CERUMO?INGING	1'31.475	0.254
3	20	Ryo Hirakawa	Team Impul	1'31.520	0.299
4	19	Yuhi Sekiguchi	Team Impul	1'31.668	0.447
5	18	Yuji Kunimoto	KCMG	1'31.693	0.472
6	6	Hiroki Otsu	Dandelion Racing	1'31.729	0.508
7	5	Tadasuke Makino	Dandelion Racing	1'31.808	0.587
8	12	Nirei Fukuzumi	ThreeBond Drago CORSE	1'31.822	0.601
9	1	Tomoki Nojiri	Team Mugen	1'31.918	0.697
10	64	Naoki Yamamoto	TCS Nakajima Racing	1'32.009	0.788
11	15	Ukyo Sasahara	Team Mugen	1'32.012	0.791
12	7	Kamui Kobayashi	KCMG	1'32.015	0.794
13	37	Ritomo Miyata	Kuo VANTELIN TEAM TOMS	1'32.021	0.800
14	3	Kenta Yamashita	Kondo Racing	1'32.095	0.874
15	50	Nobuharu Matsushita	B-Max Racing Team	1'32.109	0.888
16	36	Giuliano Alesi	Kuo VANTELIN TEAM TOMS	1'32.120	0.899
17	39	Sena Sakaguchi	P.MU/CERUMO?INGING	1'32.240	1.019
18	53	Ren Sato	Team Goh	1'32.479	1.258
19	55	Atsushi Miyake	Team Goh	1'32.496	1.275
20	14	Kazuya Oshima	docomo business ROOKIE	1'32.950	1.729
21	4	Sacha Fenestraz	Kondo Racing	1'33.274	2.053
View full results