Qualifying report

Super Formula Suzuka II

Suzuka Super Formula: Lawson keeps title hopes alive with pole

Liam Lawson kept his faint Super Formula title hopes alive by annexing a first pole position for Sunday's final race of the season at Suzuka.

Jamie Klein

Edited: Oct 29, 2023, 2:17 AM

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Liam Lawson, TEAM MUGEN

Team Mugen driver Lawson set a best lap of 1m36.442s to take the top spot in qualifying for the first time this year, beating nearest rival Kakunoshin Ota by a little under two tenths of a second.

The three bonus points mean that Lawson closes to within 12 points of championship leader Ritomo Miyata, who failed to score by qualifying fourth, ahead of Sunday afternoon's race.

Lawson's Mugen team-mate Tomoki Nojiri qualified third, falling short of pole by a little under three tenths, but the sole bonus point he picks up means he and Miyata are now split by 4.5 points with 20 left on the table.

Nojiri faced the disadvantage of coming through Q1 Group A, which he topped narrowly from Dandelion driver Ota, while Lawson laid down a marker by topping Group B ahead of Miyata.

TOM'S driver Miyata made a crucial error on his hot lap in Q2, suffering a major oversteer moment exiting Spoon Curve, as he ended up almost four tenths slower than poleman Lawson.

Suzuka Super Formula - Q2 results (Round 9):

Main Information Additional Data Driver Info

Driver Info

Main Information

Cla Driver # Laps Time Interval km/h 1 New Zealand L. Lawson Team Mugen 15 3

1'36.442

216.764 2 Japan K. Ohta Dandelion Racing 6 3

+0.171

1'36.613

0.171 216.380 3 Japan T. Nojiri Team Mugen 1 3

+0.262

1'36.704

0.091 216.177 4 Japan R. Miyata Vantelin Team TOM'S 37 4

+0.375

1'36.817

0.113 215.924 5 Japan S. Tsuboi P.MU/CERUMO･INGING 38 3

+0.535

1'36.977

0.160 215.568 6 Japan N. Matsushita B-Max Racing Team 50 3

+0.546

1'36.988

0.011 215.544 7 Japan Y. Kunimoto Team KCMG 18 3

+0.631

1'37.073

0.085 215.355 8 Japan Y. Sekiguchi ITOCHU ENEX TEAM IMPUL 19 4

+1.061

1'37.503

0.430 214.405 9 Japan R. Hirakawa ITOCHU ENEX TEAM IMPUL 20 3

+1.089

1'37.531

0.028 214.344 10 Japan T. Makino Dandelion Racing 5 3

+1.319

1'37.761

0.230 213.839 11 Japan N. Fukuzumi ThreeBond Racing 12 3

+1.326

1'37.768

0.007 213.824 12 Japan R. Sato TCS Nakajima Racing 65 3

+1.392

1'37.834

0.066 213.680 View full results

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