Mugen driver Nojiri's fifth pole of the season gives him three bonus points, putting him 35 points ahead of nearest championship rival Sacha Fenestraz with 43 left to play for over the remainder of the weekend.
With neither Fenestraz nor Ryo Hirakawa scoring any bonus points, it means that a third-place finish on Saturday afternoon would be enough for Nojiri to claim the crown in advance of Sunday's finale.
Nojiri struggled to a lowly 16th place in Friday's free practice session, which he described as "really bad", but overnight setup changes appeared to pay dividends as he made it through his Q1 group relatively comfortably in fourth, albeit 0.239s slower than pacesetter Ritomo Miyata.
He then set a 1m36.020s in the Q2 pole shootout to jump to the top of the leaderboard and boost his chances of becoming Super Formula's first back-to-back champion since Tsugio Matsuda in 2008.
TOM'S driver Miyata proved Nojiri's nearest rival, but lost time in the final sector of his hot lap and fell 0.242s short of a first career pole.
Toshiki Oyu, who topped Friday practice, was third-fastest for Nakajima Racing, a further 0.074s back, followed by Sho Tsuboi (Inging) and the second Mugen car of Ukyo Sasahara.
Tadasuke Makino (Dandelion) topped his Q1 group but couldn't replicate that speed in Q2, leaving him sixth on the grid ahead of Yuhi Sekiguchi (Impul) and Naoki Yamamoto (Nakajima).
Similarly to Makino, title contender Hirakawa outpaced Nojiri in Q1 but managed only the 11th-fastest time in the pole shootout behind Ren Sato (Team Goh) and Nirei Fukuzumi (Drago Corse), the Impul driver ending up almost a full second slower than the points leader.
Fenestraz's hopes of bridging the points deficit to Nojiri took a major blow when he dropped out of Q1 for the first time this season.
The Franco-Argentine driver could only manage the ninth-fastest time in Q1 Group A, leaving him down in 17th on the grid, one place ahead of his Kondo Racing teammate Kenta Yamashita.
Giuliano Alesi likewise recorded his worst grid position of his first full season with TOM'S and will start from 19th place.
Saturday's penultimate round of the season is set to get underway at 2.30pm local time (GMT +9).
Suzuka Super Formula (Round 9) - Q2 results:
| Cla | # | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 |
 Tomoki Nojiri |
Team Mugen | 1'36.020 | |
| 2 | 37 |
Ritomo Miyata |
Kuo VANTELIN TEAM TOM’S | 1'36.262 | 0.242 |
| 3 | 65 |
Toshiki Oyu |
TCS Nakajima Racing | 1'36.336 | 0.316 |
| 4 | 38 |
Sho Tsuboi |
P.MU/CERUMO･INGING | 1'36.356 | 0.336 |
| 5 | 15 |
Ukyo Sasahara |
Team Mugen | 1'36.452 | 0.432 |
| 6 | 5 |
Tadasuke Makino |
Dandelion Racing |
1'36.490 | 0.470 |
| 7 | 19 |
Yuhi Sekiguchi |
Team Impul | 1'36.549 | 0.529 |
| 8 | 64 |
Naoki Yamamoto |
TCS Nakajima Racing | 1'36.704 | 0.684 |
| 9 | 53 |
Ren Sato |
Team Goh | 1'36.843 | 0.823 |
| 10 | 12 |
Nirei Fukuzumi |
ThreeBond Drago CORSE | 1'36.903 | 0.883 |
| 11 | 20 |
Ryo Hirakawa |
Team Impul | 1'36.982 | 0.962 |
| 12 | 18 |
Yuji Kunimoto |
KCMG | 1'37.163 | 1.143 |
| View full results | |||||
