Super Formula Autopolis: Hirakawa charges to victory from eighth

Hirakawa made a brilliant launch from the fourth row on the opening lap to slot himself in third behind polesitter Nojiri and Tadasuke Makino, aided by Ritomo Miyata making a poor getaway from second and nudging a fast-starting Ukyo Sasahara over the grass on the run down to Turn 1.

The safety car was deployed immediately afterwards to recover the stricken Nakajima Honda of Toshiki Oyu, who crashed into the barriers at the exit of Turn 3 in a desperate attempt to move up the pack after an engine change left him last on the grid.

When the safety car retreated into the pits at the end of lap three, Nojiri was able to pull away from the rest of the field but Makino was struggling to hold on to second position.

At the start of lap five, Makino covered the inside line into Turn 1, but Hirakawa was able to pull off a brilliant move around the outside of the Dandelion Honda driver to snatch second position.

Before Hirakawa could set about chasing Nojiri for the lead, the safety car returned as Kamui Kobayashi's KCMG Toyota was left stranded on track at the exit of Turn 3 following a collision with Sho Tsuboi.

The race didn’t resume until the start of lap 10, with Nojiri leading the way from Hirakawa as a struggling Makino pitted at the end of that lap to fit a fresh set of tyres.

Nojiri was the next of the frontrunners to pit on lap 16, with Hirakawa staying out in a bid to overcut his chief title rival.

This was where the race shifted in Hirakawa’s favour, with the Toyota Hypercar driver setting a series of fastest laps as Nojiri struggled for performance even with fresh tyres on his Mugen Honda.

When Hirakawa finally dived into the pits at the end of lap 20, he was able to emerge from the pits comfortably in the net lead, even as his stop was fractionally slower at 8.5s.

With Nojiri having no pace to mount a fightback, Hirakawa was able to cruise to the chequered flag, scoring his fourth career victory with a comfortable margin of 2.3s.

So poor was Nojiri’s pace in the second stint that he was overcut by both Kondo Racing’s Sacha Fenestraz and Team Goh rookie Atsushi Miyake, dropping outside the podium positions in fourth.

Both Fenestraz and Miyake were able to nurse their tyres for a long first stint and pit in the final 15 laps, with the latter making the most of the strategy to score his and Goh’s first podium in only their fourth start in the series.

Nojiri’s result has left him with a reduced lead of seven points over Hirakawa, as the two again cemented their position as chief title contenders.

Tomoki Nojiri, TEAM MUGEN

Photo by: Masahide Kamio

TOM'S driver Miyata was able to get a jump on Makino in the pits and kept the pressure up on a struggling Nojiri in the second stint, but was unable to make a move and had to settle for fifth.

Makino ended up sixth ahead of the second Mugen car of Sasahara, who likewise stopped on lap 10.

Completing the top 10 were Inging's Sena Sakaguchi, the Dandelion car of Hiroki Otsu and Suzuka race winner Nobuharu Matsushita, who was able to haul his B-Max machine to the final points-paying position from 19th on the grid.

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Super Formula Autopolis - Race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Gap
1	20	Ryo Hirakawa	Team Impul
2	4	Sacha Fenestraz	Kondo Racing	2.310
3	55	Atsushi Miyake	Team Goh	12.508
4	1	Tomoki Nojiri	Team Mugen	21.821
5	37	Ritomo Miyata	Kuo VANTELIN TEAM TOM’S	22.391
6	5	Tadasuke Makino	Dandelion Racing	32.569
7	15	Ukyo Sasahara	Team Mugen	33.571
8	39	Sena Sakaguchi	P.MU/CERUMO･INGING	34.647
9	6	Hiroki Otsu	Dandelion Racing	35.577
10	50	Nobuharu Matsushita	B-Max Racing Team	36.410
11	18	Yuji Kunimoto	KCMG	39.718
12	3	Kenta Yamashita	Kondo Racing	46.360
13	12	Nirei Fukuzumi	ThreeBond Drago CORSE	53.946
14	38	Sho Tsuboi	P.MU/CERUMO･INGING	58.931
15	64	Naoki Yamamoto	TCS Nakajima Racing	1 Lap
16	14	Kazuya Oshima	docomo business ROOKIE	1 Lap
17	19	Yuhi Sekiguchi	Team Impul	1 Lap
18	53	Ren Sato	Team Goh	2 Laps
19	36	Giuliano Alesi	Kuo VANTELIN TEAM TOM’S	6 Laps
20	7	Kamui Kobayashi	KCMG	38 Laps
21	65	Toshiki Oyu	TCS Nakajima Racing
View full results