Toyota driver Nirei Fukuzumi set the fastest time across two days of Super Formula pre-season testing at Suzuka this week.
Fukuzumi, who has switched to Rookie Racing for the 2026 campaign after two seasons at KCMG, set the benchmark time of 1m36.290s in the second afternoon on Thursday in dry conditions.
Second-fastest was Nakajima Racing’s Igor Fraga, 0.055s behind, while Fraga’s team-mate Ren Sato completed the top three, also within a tenth of Fukuzumi.
The opening day of testing at Suzuka was held on a wet track, and was memorable mostly for a terrifying airborne crash for Kondo Racing’s Luke Browning at 130R.
Williams Formula 1 reserve driver Browning appeared to aquaplane at the fast left-hander amid worsening rain, spinning his Toyota-powered machine before digging into the wet gravel, hitting the sponge barriers and bouncing over the armco.
The car came to rest upside down, meaning marshals needed to help the Briton get out of the car, but he was miraculously uninjured in the crash.
Kondo’s mechanics worked until the early hours of the morning to repair the damaged car in time for Browning to take part in the first session on Thursday.
Luke Browning, REALIZE KONDO RACING
Photo by: Masahide Kamio
The F2 graduate went on to set the 18th fastest time of the afternoon session and of the test overall, 1.075s behind Fukuzumi.
Browning was not the only driver to be caught out in the poor conditions, as Fraga suffered a crash of his own at Spoon, while Sato, Kamui Kobayashi (TGM Grand Prix), and Zak O’Sullivan (Team Impul) also suffered incidents on the opening day of action.
Completing the top five overall for the test were defending champion Ayumu Iwasa (Team Mugen) and series returnee Nobuharu Matsushita, who is driving for the likewise Honda-powered Delightworks Racing team this year.
Fastest of the rookies was B-Max Racing’s Yuto Nomura in 17th overall.
Last-minute signing Roman Stanek was third-fastest of the rookies and 20th overall in his first Super Formula test for the new Kondo-run Buzz MK team.
Kalle Rovanpera ended up 24th and slowest as he returned to Super Formula action after dropping out of his test debut last December due to illness.
The Finnish driver set a best time of 1m38.712s at the wheel of his Red Bull-backed KCMG car, which left him 2.422s off the pace, albeit the two-time World Rally champion improved by over one second from the morning.
Super Formula’s opening double-header weekend will be held at Motegi on April 4-5.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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