Liam Lawson will start tomorrow’s Super Formula race at Fuji on the front row, having set the second-fastest time in qualifying at Fuji this evening. Tadasuke Makino will start the race on pole, while Lawson’s closest championship rivals Ritomo Miyata, Tomoki Nojiri and Sho Tsuboi could only manage fifth, seventh and ninth, respectively.
It’s a welcome return to the venue where Lawson claimed a history-making win on debut earlier this year; the Kiwi awarded a bonus of two championship points for his qualifying result. This sees him close the gap to the leading Miyata to just 10 points ahead of tomorrow’s race.
Qualifying out of Group A, Lawson joined the field on multiple slow laps to get the tyres up to temperature before punching out a 1:22.734 on his final run to progress to Round 2 as the top qualifier.
Progression means Lawson has featured in the final 12 of all six qualifying sessions this season.
Fellow championship contenders Miyata and Nojiri would run in Group B, where drivers followed a similar theme of running multiple warmup laps before attempting their flyers.
Nojiri would set a 1:22.797 to briefly lead the group, only to be upstaged by Kakunoshin Ohta’s 1:22.528. Miyata would be third quickest, 0.3 seconds behind the group leader. Tsuboi, who is fourth in the championship, would sneak through to Qualifying 2 in sixth place, securing safety by just 0.031 seconds.
Miyata was the first to set a competitive lap; a 1:22.457 put him on provisional pole with the entire field still to come through. Lawson would immediately better this, setting a 1:22.242 and holding the top spot until the final runners came home.
It took a wonder lap from Makino to take pole, the 26-year-old setting a 1:22.063 to upstage Lawson by nearly two-tenths of a second.
Miyata would eventually drop down to fifth and will have Nojiri starting directly behind from seventh in tomorrow’s race. Tsuboi could only manage ninth-quickest, giving Lawson the upper hand over his closest championship rivals.
Tomorrow’s race will be shown live with a paid subscription on motorsport.tv at 5.15 pm.
Header Image: Red Bull Content Pool
Good luck Liam