Oyu set his best time of 1m05.648s right at the end of the seven-minute Q2 session, edging out practice pacesetter Miyata by just 0.031s as the leading 12 drivers were separated by just eight tenths of a second.
It was Oyu’s third career pole in Super Formula after Motegi in 2022 and Suzuka this April, and gives him three bonus points in the championship.
Reigning champion Tomoki Nojiri had looked set for pole when he lapped the circuit in 1m05.681s, the fastest time of the weekend until that driver, but the Mugen driver eventually qualified third after first Miyata and then Oyu went to the top of the times during the final seconds of qualifying.
Fastest in his group, Inging’s Sho Tsuboi ended up fourth on the grid with a time of 1m05.795s, a tenth down on Nojiri and 0.327s off the pace of polesitter Oyu.
Ryo Hirakawa, fresh off his podium finish at the Le Mans 24 Hours, guided his Impul car to fifth, just 0.012s slower than the time he needed to qualify inside the first two rows.
Championship leader Liam Lawson didn’t feature in the pole fight and ended up sixth with a time of 1m05.842s in the second of the two Mugen cars, ahead of the top Dandelion car of Tadasuke Makino.
Rookie Racing’s Kazuya Oshima qualified five tenths off the pace in eighth, separating Dandelion duo Makino and Kakunoshin Ota, with Nakajima Racing’s Ren Sato completing the top 10.
Yuji Kunimoto led the charge for KCMG in 11th ahead of sole ThreeBond car of Nirei Fukuzumi.
The first part of qualifying featured a big crash for Cem Bolukbasi, the TGM driver going over the grass coming out of Turn 8 and crashing into the barriers with just seconds left on the clock.
Race control elected not to stop the session, but the yellow flags so deployed cost Kondo Racing’s Kazuto Kotaka his best lap time and a spot into Q2 to Sato, the 24-year-old eventually qualifying 16th.
Kotaka’s team-mate Kenta Yamashita was also knocked out in Q1 in his respective qualifying group and will start 13th, one spot ahead of KCMG's Kamui Kobayashi - another driver who fell victim of the yellow flag caused by Bolukbasi.
Naoki Yamamoto (Nakajima Racing), Yuhi Sekiguchi (Impul) and Sena Sakaguchi (Inging) were other high-profile drivers who failed to make the Q2 cut, qualifying 15th, 19th and 22nd respectively.
Super Formula Sugo - Q2 results:
| Cla | # | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 53 |
 Toshiki Oyu |
TGM Grand Prix | 1'05.468 | |
| 2 | 37 |
Ritomo Miyata |
Vantelin Team TOM'S | 1'05.499 | 0.031 |
| 3 | 1 |
Tomoki Nojiri |
Team Mugen | 1'05.681 | 0.213 |
| 4 | 38 |
Sho Tsuboi |
JMS P.mu/cerumo-INGING | 1'05.795 | 0.327 |
| 5 | 20 |
Ryo Hirakawa |
ITOCHU ENEX TEAM IMPUL | 1'05.807 | 0.339 |
| 6 | 15 |
 Liam Lawson |
Team Mugen | 1'05.842 | 0.374 |
| 7 | 5 |
Tadasuke Makino |
Dandelion Racing |
1'05.920 | 0.452 |
| 8 | 14 |
Kazuya Oshima |
docomo business ROOKIE | 1'05.960 | 0.492 |
| 9 | 6 | Kakunoshin Ota | Dandelion Racing |
1'06.031 | 0.563 |
| 10 | 65 |
Ren Sato |
TCS Nakajima Racing | 1'06.233 | 0.765 |
| 11 | 18 |
Yuji Kunimoto |
Team KCMG | 1'06.299 | 0.831 |
| 12 | 12 |
Nirei Fukuzumi |
ThreeBond Racing | 1'06.352 | 0.884 |
| View full results | |||||
