Kakunoshin Ohta claimed yet another Super Formula victory at Fuji to put one hand on the 2026 championship trophy, as Igor Fraga also added to his win tally.
From third on the grid, Ohta was able to overcome the Team Mugen cars of polesitter Tomoki Nojiri and Ayumu Iwasa to earn his fourth win of the year, and extend his lead in the championship to a massive 50.5 points with five races remaining.
Fraga came away with a strong second to follow up his win from earlier in the day, when he stormed from ninth on the grid to win the replacement Autopolis sprint race.
Oil being dumped by Fraga’s Nakajima Racing team-mate Ren Sato due to a cracked gearbox led to a 45-minute delay in the afternoon race, with the field starting from the pitlane behind the safety car until the field was released on lap six of 41.
It only took four laps of green-flag running for Ohta to fight his way into the lead, despite initially slipping behind Fraga – who initially picked off both Dandelion cars to move into second when the field arrived at Turn 1.
Nojiri regained the initiative by making his pitstop on lap 11, before any of his rivals, with team-mate Iwasa following suit on lap 14 after running sixth early on.
Kakunoshin Ohta, DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING
Photo by: Masahide Kamio
Ohta pitted on lap 26, and the undercut effect meant he slipped to third behind the two Team Mugen cars, but on lap 29 the points leader forced his way past Iwasa at the Turn 6 left-hander before challenging Nojiri for the lead once again.
The winning move came along the start/finish straight at the start of lap 30, before Fraga followed suit by passing Iwasa and Nojiri in quick succession to take second.
Ohta then raced away from Fraga to the tune of 4.9 seconds to claim his 10th career Super Formula win and put himself in an ever-stronger position in the championship.
Following their early pitstops, Nojiri and Iwasa lacked the pace to stay in the podium fight, conceding places to both Makino and the TOM’S car of Sho Tsuboi.
Defending champion Iwasa was able to clear Nojiri for fifth late on to very slightly soften the blow to his championship aspirations.
Igor Fraga, PONOS NAKAJIMA RACING
Photo by: Masahide Kamio
Fraga wins sprint race, Iwasa out at first corner
In the sprint race, Fraga made a superb launch from ninth to run fourth after the first lap, while Iwasa made an awful getaway from pole and was caught up in a four-way melee at Turn 1 involving Zak O’Sullivan, Nirei Fukuzumi and Roman Stanek.
It meant second-place starter Ohta led the way from Sena Sakaguchi and Nojiri, but after a long safety car period Fraga went from fourth to first in one fell swoop as Ohta and Sakaguchi both ran wide at Turn 1 in their fight for the lead.
Another safety car was called after contact between Juju Noda and Yuto Nomura, after which Sakaguchi repassed Nojiri for second.
Sakaguchi was then forced out of the race by gear shift problems, and although Nojiri also slipped behind Ohta, he was promoted back to second when the latter was handed a 10-second penalty for a mechanic illegally drying his grid slot.
With Ohta falling to eighth, it was Tsuboi who claimed the final podium place.
Boosted by his sprint race win, Fraga jumps to third in the standings on 39 points, only 5.5 points behind Iwasa, while Fukuzumi slips to fourth after finishing eighth for Rookie Racing in the finale behind Inging driver Toshiki Oyu.
Super Formula Fuji – Race 2 results
Super Formula Fuji – Sprint race results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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