Nojiri has pulled out of this weekend’s fourth round of the season due to his illness, which had left him struggling with chest pain and a shortness of breath.
But after leaving hospital, the championship leader joined his Mugen team at the track on Friday evening, and was seen on Saturday spectating trackside during both the morning’s free practice session and qualifying in the afternoon.
Speaking after qualifying second, Lawson was full of praise for Nojiri’s willingness to come and help out the squad despite his condition.
“Firstly, I feel terrible for him,” said Lawson of Nojiri’s situation. “It’s so rare that you see this kind of thing happen, especially to someone who is leading the championship.
“It’s horrible, so I have huge respect that he is still here this weekend helping the team, because I think most drivers would not be doing what he is doing.
“At the same time I am here to win and the goal tomorrow is to score as many points as I can. Unless it was the last race of the season, the approach doesn’t really change.”
Small mistake costs Lawson pole chance
Lawson narrowly missed out on a first pole of his Super Formula career in the Q2 pole shootout, missing out by 0.174s to Inging driver Sho Tsuboi.
The New Zealander, who had been fastest in free practice, admitted he lost time with a small slide at Turn 8, the long left-hander in the second sector.
“We had a good baseline from practice this morning, but the conditions changed a lot going into qualifying,” reflected Lawson.
“The track got much hotter, so we were all chasing that a bit with the balance, but the set-up for qualifying was good as well.
“We had a slide through Turn 8, we struggled a bit with the balance there and I overheated the tyre. That carried on to Turn 10, the hairpin, so I think that’s where we lost pole.
“I’m a little bit disappointed to miss pole, but second is still a good position for tomorrow. This year the race pace has generally been good this year so I am hoping we can transfer that to this circuit as well.”
Super-sub Otsu "frustrated" after crash
Mugen substitute driver Hiroki Otsu, who is standing in for the unwell Nojiri this weekend, suffered a crash at Turn 8 in the first segment of qualifying, bringing out the red flags and condemning himself to a back-of-the-grid start.
Having finished free practice an encouraging fourth-fastest, Otsu was despondent at letting down the team for which he previous drove in 2021.
"Because it was qualifying, I was pushing quite a bit, and I had a good feeling in Sector 1," recalled Otsu. "But at the time I lost the rear, I was totally helpless and I couldn’t control it at all.
"It's possible this is one of the difficult things about this year's tyres and the SF23 aero, but I’m frustrated I couldn’t handle it well, and I’m sorry to the team after they called me up as a reserve.
"I’ll do my best to fight my way forwards from the back tomorrow, but it was a big mistake."
Additional reporting by Kenichiro Ebii
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