Dandelion Racing driver Kakunoshin Ohta scored his third consecutive Super Formula win as he edged out Ayumu Iwasa to win a thrilling opener at Suzuka.
Ohta and Red Bull junior Iwasa were split by just 0.197 seconds at the end of a 27-lap race interrupted by three safety car periods, one of which fell as the pit window opened on lap 10 and led to the entire field coming in for their stops in unison.
Several drivers lost out amid the chaos, most notably polesitter Tomoki Nojiri, who dropped behind team-mate Iwasa at the start and then was put at a huge disadvantage as Team Mugen was forced to double-stack the leading pair.
Ohta meanwhile maintained his grid position of third, jumping to second during the pitstops, and immediately put Iwasa under pressure in the lead battle.
At the start of the 14th lap, one lap after the restart, Ohta made perfect use of the Overtake System (OTS) to draft ahead of Iwasa heading into Turn 1, taking a lead he wouldn’t lose.
There was a further safety car period at the end of that lap, as Nirei Fukuzumi’s KCMG car became stranded after contact with TGM’s Hibiki Taira, but Ohta was able to hold off Iwasa when the race resumed on lap 18.
Iwasa stayed within a second for the rest of the distance, and had more OTS left to use on the final lap but couldn’t get close enough to Ohta to challenge in the final chicane.
It marked Ohta’s fourth win in Super Formula, and his third in succession as he had won both races that made up last year’s double-header finale at the same track.
Completing the podium was Ren Sato, who scored Nakajima Racing’s first top three in a year as he passed reigning champion Sho Tsuboi (TOM’S) at Turn 1 on the second restart.
Tsuboi opened his title defence in fourth ahead of KCMG’s Kamui Kobayashi and the Inging machine of Sena Sakaguchi.
Ex-Williams Academy driver Zak O'Sullivan scored three points for eighth on his Super Formula debut for Kondo Racing, being passed by Nojiri on the final restart.
Dandelion's Tadasuke Makino was another to lose out in the pits, having run fourth early on behind team-mate Ohta, and wound up 10th after Kazuya Oshima (Rookie Racing) was penalised for an unsafe release.
Sacha Fenestraz was 11th on his return for TOM’S, while O’Sullivan’s fellow rookies Mitsunori Takaboshi (Impul) and Shun Koide (B-Max) were 12th and 14th, the latter after making a slow getaway from seventh on the grid.
Igor Fraga had been due to start eighth in the second of the Nakajima cars, but was forced to start from the pits after an off on his reconnaissance lap. He was then caught up by the contact between Fukuzumi and TGM’s Hibiki Taira, which left the Brazilian driver a lap down in 18th.
A clash between Kazuto Kotaka (TGM) and Toshiki Oyu (Inging) caused the second safety car, while Atsushi Miyake (ThreeBond) had a spectacular off on the opening lap as he tried to pass O’Sullivan at Turn 7, bringing out the first caution.
Oliver Rasmussen was ruled out of action by a crash at Degner in Friday’s opening practice session that left him with a fractured lumbar vertebra. His place at Impul was taken by Toyota junior Seita Nonaka, who finished 16th.
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| Cla | Driver | # | Laps | Time | Interval | km/h | Pits | Points | Retirement | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 |  K. Ohta Dandelion Racing |
6 | 27 |
59'16.061 |
20 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2 | A. Iwasa Team Mugen |
15 | 27 |
+0.197 59'16.258 |
0.197 | 15 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 | R. Sato PONOS Nakajima Racing |
64 | 27 |
+3.411 59'19.472 |
3.214 | 11 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 | S. Tsuboi Vantelin Team TOM'S |
1 | 27 |
+6.327 59'22.388 |
2.916 | 8 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 | K. Kobayashi Team KCMG |
7 | 27 |
+6.793 59'22.854 |
0.466 | 6 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 6 | S. Sakaguchi Sanki Vertex Partners Cerumo - INGING |
38 | 27 |
+11.803 59'27.864 |
5.010 | 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 7 | T. Nojiri Team Mugen |
16 | 27 |
+13.350 59'29.411 |
1.547 | 4 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8 |  Z. O'Sullivan Kondo Racing |
4 | 27 |
+14.662 59'30.723 |
1.312 | 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9 | K. Oshima docomo business ROOKIE |
14 | 27 |
+17.828 59'33.889 |
3.166 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10 | K. Yamashita Kondo Racing |
3 | 27 |
+19.160 59'35.221 |
1.332 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 11 | T. Makino Dandelion Racing |
5 | 27 |
+20.095 59'36.156 |
0.935 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 12 |  S. Fenestraz Vantelin Team TOM'S |
37 | 27 |
+22.029 59'38.090 |
1.934 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 13 | M. Takaboshi Itochu Enex Wecars Team Impul |
20 | 27 |
+26.348 59'42.409 |
4.319 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 14 |
S. Koide San-Ei Gen with B-Max
|
50 | 27 |
+27.895 59'43.956 |
1.547 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 15 |
H. Taira KDDI TGMGP TGR-DC
|
29 | 27 |
+31.478 59'47.539 |
3.583 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 16 |  O. Rasmussen Itochu Enex Wecars Team Impul |
19 | 27 |
+34.933 59'50.994 |
3.455 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 17 | J. Noda Hazama Ando Triple Tree Racing |
10 | 27 |
+58.825 1:00'14.886 |
23.892 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 18 |  I. Fraga PONOS Nakajima Racing |
65 | 26 |
+1 Lap 59'47.696 |
1 Lap | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| dnf | N. Fukuzumi Team KCMG |
8 | 12 |
+15 Laps 30'00.540 |
14 Laps | Retirement | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| dnf | T. Oyu Sanki Vertex Partners Cerumo - INGING |
39 | 8 |
+19 Laps 18'08.763 |
4 Laps | Retirement | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| dnf | K. Kotaka KDDI TGMGP TGR-DC |
28 | 8 |
+19 Laps 18'09.041 |
0.278 | Retirement | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| dnf | A. Miyake ThreeBond Racing |
12 | 0 |
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