Sho Tsuboi snapped his Super Formula winning streak dating back to 2020 together with his first victory of the season for the TOM'S team in Sunday's fourth round at Fuji Speedway.
Tsuboi began from fourth and dropped to fifth on the primary lap, but showed blistering race pace to regain the position and eventually beat Toshiki Oyu by 7.1 seconds.
Coming out of his mandatory pit stop quite late, Tsuboi moved into the lead when second-placed Oyu pitted on lap 13 of 41, with early leader and polesitter Nirei Fukuzumi doing so on lap 14.
Tsuboi waited until lap 28 to make his pit stop, coming behind not only Oyu but additionally earlier pit stoppers Tomoki Nojiri and Tadasuke Makino, while a slow pit stop by the KCMG crew saw Fukuzumi drop down the standings.
However, Tsuboi, benefiting from more energizing tyres, immediately launched an attack, quickly passing Makino and Nojiri by the tip of lap 30 after which closing in on race leader Oyu at a rate of over one second per lap.
It only looked just like the lead could be inevitable at Turn 3 when Tsuboi passed Inginga Oyu just before the braking zone.
Tsuboi’s victory was his first since joining TOM’S from Inging earlier this season, and his third overall. It got here on the identical day that his wife Aimi Saito triumphed in the ladies’s Kyojo Cup.
Oyu held on to second place, scoring his first podium since leaving Honda for Toyota this 12 months, while Nojiri accomplished the rostrum for Team Mugen.
Nojiri's teammate and largest title rival, Ayumu Iwasa, had a disastrous race, dropping from second on the grid to thirteenth on the primary lap.
The young Red Bull driver decided to go away the pits at almost the last minute, fearing a security automotive. However, the warning didn’t come out and the driving force finished the race in eleventh place, outside the points.
Watch: Round 4: Fuji Highlights
This implies that halfway through the season, Nojiri has prolonged his lead in the general standings to 9.5 points, with Tsuboi now his closest rival in second place.
Fukuzumi managed to regain the advantage over Makino in the ultimate stages of the race and fight for fourth place, taking KCMG’s first ever Super Formula pole position on Saturday.
Fifth place for Dandelion Racing’s Makino allowed him to overtake Iwasa and move into third place within the Drivers’ Championship, 14 points behind Nojiri.
Yuji Kunimoto achieved his best results of the season for Team Impul, ending sixth ahead of Nakajima Racing's Ren Sato and Kamui Kobayashi within the second KCMG automotive.
The top ten was accomplished by Impula substitute Hibiki Taira, who scored his first Super Formula points, and Naoki Yamamoto from Nakajima Racing.
Sena Sakaguchi retired early when his Inging automotive stopped on the primary lap, while Kakunoshin Ota in the opposite Dandelion automotive didn’t start as a consequence of serious problems at first.
Super Formula Fuji – Race Results:
