Super Formula 2025. Round 3. Motegi

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Super Formula 2025. Round 3. Motegi
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00:00:00And like you say, the other option is to try and go as long as possible.

00:00:03You can go until the pronouncement lap.

00:00:05And you can always catch a break with a safety car.

00:00:08Probably a bit less likely here than a Suzuka, where we routinely see safety cars.

00:00:12And we saw a lot of those in the opening round last month.

00:00:16Here, there's still a possibility, but not quite as high probability as we see at Suzuka.

00:00:25As Kondo-san watches on, he'll be hoping Kenty and Ashta.

00:00:28And I still feel he'll have been disappointed after qualifying to only be P4.

00:00:33This really seemed like a good opportunity.

00:00:35Could still be a good opportunity if he can get off the line well.

00:00:38Hopefully pick off Igor Fraga, at least from his perspective, that would be the ideal thing.

00:00:43And then set about hopefully having some long run pace to challenge the two Dandelion cars.

00:00:50It's going to be interesting to see.

00:00:51I'm really intrigued by Fraga and Fenestras because we haven't really sort of paid too much attention to them so far.

00:00:58Of course, being rookies and returnees respectively, we're talking about them.

00:01:02But in terms of really studying their pace and their performance,

00:01:05I feel like we've not really zeroed in on them as much as we have the two Dandelion guys,

00:01:10the two Mugen guys and Shoudsboi, who of course has got it all to do from P12.

00:01:14I think just a few points in this race, he'll be relatively satisfied.

00:01:17But I'm really intrigued to see if Fraga and Fenestras do have the long run pace to go along with their impressive one lap pace.

00:01:27So now we need to see who within the top ten can make a good impact.

00:01:32It's not easy to get a good start here.

00:01:35A lot of the years we've run races and essentially the top ten has remained relatively the same on the opening lap

00:01:41because this is one of those circuits where it comes down more to the driver in the opening lap

00:01:45than it does to the chaos of the general conditions.

00:01:49But there have been some changes in the past.

00:01:51The drivers that really need to benefit are clearly the Mugens.

00:01:54I think Toshki Oyu is going to have a terrible race if he doesn't stay,

00:01:58if he doesn't get higher than 11th on the grid.

00:02:00He's going to have one of the most frustrating races all season

00:02:02because we know from Q1 that he has a quick car.

00:02:05He wasn't able to maximize it in Q2, but we know he's got a quick car.

00:02:08He's sat in 11th or 10th on the opening lap.

00:02:11He's going to have a miserable afternoon just by being stuck in the gaggle.

00:02:15There is the option to vote for the driver of the race over the course of the race.

00:02:18Vote by scanning the QR code and downloading the SFGO app if you haven't already done so.

00:02:24You'll get all the onboard footage, all of the latest telemetry data,

00:02:28live timing, driver radio, everything you could possibly want to get you closer to the action.

00:02:32But this is where it all comes down to steely nerve.

00:02:36This is going to be tough for Kakunoshi and Otta to beat Tadusuke Makino to turn one.

00:02:40But if anyone can, Otta can.

00:02:41There's Sugisaki-san, Makino's engineer.

00:02:47Two really experienced engineers looking after the two sides of the Dandelion garage.

00:02:52And of course, it was a 1-2, almost a 1-2 here last year.

00:02:55Otta having that throttle issue at the very last, which caused him to spin, lose the victory,

00:03:00handed it to Makino.

00:03:01So Dandelion still chasing that elusive 1-2 finish.

00:03:05If it had been the case last year, it would have been the team's first since, I think,

00:03:09going back to 2012 with Dekuya Zawa and Kuala Isuka Koshi.

00:03:14So it's a very rare thing for any team to get a 1-2 finish.

00:03:18There's Nakajima-san.

00:03:19He'll be keeping a close eye out for Igor Fraga, of course.

00:03:22A lot of tension on this starting grid.

00:03:24Kakunoshi Otta has the chance to make it six different race winners in six different

00:03:31Motegi runnings of this race in a row, which is quite an incredible opportunity for him.

00:03:37Tadisuke Makino, of course, won the last event here.

00:03:39It should have been Kakunoshi Otta, he will argue.

00:03:41But that throttle issue did things on the penultimate lap last year while leading and while battling

00:03:46his teammate, I should point out.

00:03:48But this race could be even better than that one last year because both drivers now are making

00:03:53acclaim to be the number one banana at Docomo Dandelion.

00:03:57Now they've got a chance to prove it.

00:03:59Makino took first blood in qualifying, Otta second.

00:04:01But with Fraga, Yamashita and Sasha Fenestras bearing down.

00:04:06Let's race to Motegi.

00:04:07Round three is go.

00:04:08And there's a non-mover.

00:04:10Fenestras almost stalling on the grid.

00:04:11It's a terrible start for the toms.

00:04:13He drops behind his teammate.

00:04:14And look at the start from Fraga.

00:04:16Round the outside of one of the Dandelions.

00:04:18He's already got ahead of one and the other.

00:04:20While his teammate, Ren Sato, goes off into the gravel at turn one.

00:04:23Fraga's got problems now trying to defend from Kakunoshinota in a turn two.

00:04:28But he's made it stick.

00:04:29And in a second.

00:04:30And that's a Mugen up in fourth position.

00:04:32Amazing beneficiary of the problems on the grid for Fenestras.

00:04:36It couldn't have gone worse for Team Toms.

00:04:38It's gone amazing for Igor Fraga.

00:04:39And he's the one to split the Dandelions.

00:04:42Absolutely incredible.

00:04:44Amazing start for Igor Fraga.

00:04:46Almost did a Liam Lawson getting right on the curb exiting turn two.

00:04:49Remember that two years ago when Lawson contested the turns one and two.

00:04:54The safety car is out.

00:04:55I think we've got an Ingin car stopped on the circuit.

00:04:58And like you say, Ren Sato also came to grief.

00:05:00So I think there's been contact.

00:05:01There is Ren Sato's stricken Nakajima machine.

00:05:04So I think he's had a coming together with one of the two Ingin cars.

00:05:07And there it is.

00:05:07It's Toshki Oyu.

00:05:09What a disappointment.

00:05:10Number 39 there.

00:05:11That's a real heartbreaker.

00:05:13And but Fraga doing a great job there.

00:05:16But now the safety car comes out.

00:05:17It's all going to be reset.

00:05:19But in some ways it kind of locks in the advantage for Fraga.

00:05:22Iwasa as well.

00:05:23Brilliant start up to P4.

00:05:24That's critical for him.

00:05:26P2 in Q1 Group B for Toshki Oyu in qualifying.

00:05:33And now out on the first lap.

00:05:35That is devastating.

00:05:36Here's Ren Sato's radio.

00:05:37So I think Sato's saying he obviously made contact there.

00:05:51You can see the back of the car is bent.

00:05:53And the engineer asked, can you move?

00:05:55And he's like, no, no, I'm completely stuck.

00:05:57Which is no surprise because the rear wheel is all bent out of shape.

00:06:00And you can see Oyu's got damage at the front.

00:06:01So I think Oyu went into the back of Sato.

00:06:05I think we have to conclude there.

00:06:06Hopefully we'll get a replay.

00:06:07I'm sure we will very soon.

00:06:09Oyu obviously making it a little bit further around.

00:06:11I guess he probably thought, I'll try and get it back to Pids.

00:06:13There is the engineer of Toshki Oyu on the Dimasan.

00:06:18And Oyu trudging a long walk back to the paddock here at Mobility Resort Motagi.

00:06:25Do you remember last year when we had a relatively clean run on lap one of races?

00:06:30And it was very rare, actually, to have a safety car last season.

00:06:33Here we are in the second weekend in a row of a doubleheader.

00:06:37And in both of the first races, we've had a safety car on the first lap.

00:06:40It doesn't bode well for the rest of 2025, does it?

00:06:43Well, I'm okay with a lap one safety car.

00:06:45What I'm not okay with is a lap 10 safety car.

00:06:48Because then we'll have to...

00:06:48Yeah, that's devastating.

00:06:49Because that kind of just ruins the race for so many drivers.

00:06:53You know, Alta in that situation would be the one who really loses out.

00:06:57I mean, Norgiri as well.

00:06:58There's now a couple of cars in between.

00:07:00So here's the replay.

00:07:00Let's try and keep it out for Sato.

00:07:02On the far right of the screen, Sato gets a good getaway, actually.

00:07:06And Oyu, manually avoided Venestras.

00:07:09Oyu gets, I think, the better of the two Ingin cars here.

00:07:13And then what happens?

00:07:14Just understeers into him.

00:07:16Yeah, he had his teammate Senesakiguchi alongside him.

00:07:19But he wasn't quite ahead of him.

00:07:21So he was about halfway level.

00:07:23Here's Venestras missing the start.

00:07:24How close was Nido Fukuzumi to striking the back of the Team Toms car?

00:07:28Fraga, though, has got a lightning launch.

00:07:30And look, he is narrowly ahead on the outside of the apex.

00:07:33But there's just not enough room to manoeuvre.

00:07:35And again, more problems there at Toms.

00:07:38I think it was Suboi actually getting held up there behind the incident.

00:07:42Or was it Venestras?

00:07:43Here's on board with Sascha.

00:07:44All that hard work is undone.

00:07:46Devastating.

00:07:47He was looking good for a great weekend.

00:07:49Then he follows in behind.

00:07:50And look, I think it is Suboi who has to take avoiding action.

00:07:53It is indeed.

00:07:53So both Team Toms cars have a miserable start to the race.

00:07:58Coach Sullivan just sneaking ahead of Venestras there.

00:08:01So I think they're P9 and P10.

00:08:03Suboi is looking out for him on the timing screen.

00:08:06It's P14, I think.

00:08:08So, yes, there he is in the timing tower behind both of the TGM cars.

00:08:13So that's going to be difficult to score points from there, or certainly more than a couple of points.

00:08:18There's Sato's engineer, Yuki Kato.

00:08:20We talked about him in qualifying.

00:08:21Early bath, his driver, who's on his way back to the paddock as well.

00:08:27Really disappointing.

00:08:29But, yeah, for the safety car, hopefully, he won't be out for too long.

00:08:34Because I think both drivers, sort of, at least in Oyu's case, he was pretty near one of the gates.

00:08:40So I think he should be quite easy to retrieve.

00:08:41So hopefully, we won't be under the safety car for too long.

00:08:45Not an easy race start to the career of the debutante, Rikuto Kobayashi, either.

00:08:50As he slaps all the way back to 20th place behind his teammate, Mitsunori Takabashi.

00:08:55So he didn't have a great start.

00:08:56Nori Shinkoide.

00:08:56Sakaguchi being asked, guys, engineer, is the car okay?

00:09:11Did you hit anything?

00:09:13Because it did look like the two...

00:09:14Sakaguchi was very close to the other Ingin car of Toshiki Oyu at Turn 1.

00:09:20But Sakaguchi confirming, no, I didn't hit anything.

00:09:22Everything's fine.

00:09:23So P8 for the sole surviving Ingin car in this race.

00:09:28Yeah, he was sort of parallel to him.

00:09:30But he was only about halfway alongside in Turn 1.

00:09:33And he was able to hug the inside Apex.

00:09:35Whereas, as you mentioned, Toshiki Oyu was kind of in the middle of the road.

00:09:39And that's slightly towards the marble.

00:09:41So it clearly just drifted into the side of Rensato.

00:09:45A lot of ambitious drivers in Turn 1.

00:09:46None the least of whom was Igor Fraga.

00:09:49The boy is saying, so Fenistraz, I'm too close behind Fenistraz, so please think about the strategy in terms of the, I think perhaps he's concerned about the possibility of a double stack.

00:10:09But basically urging Toms to hurry up and decide who has priority.

00:10:14Because, of course, somebody's going to have to come in on lap 10.

00:10:16So, well, you'd think that would be the obvious thing.

00:10:19Safety car in this lap.

00:10:20So we are going to get going again on lap 4.

00:10:22But Suboy already pressuring Toms to make a decision on who gets priority at the pit stop.

00:10:28And that's interesting, because, of course, Sascha Fenistraz qualified P5.

00:10:32Okay, he slipped to P10.

00:10:34Suboy qualified P12, but he slipped to 14.

00:10:37So do you favor the reigning champion?

00:10:39Or do you favor the man who's clearly got his act back together again?

00:10:43I think you have to favor the guy who's got the track position, don't you?

00:10:46Assuming that Fenistraz doesn't want to do the long strategy, which he might well do.

00:10:50You know, you never know.

00:10:51That was what he wanted to do at Suzuka and it didn't work out.

00:10:54The team went for an early strategy, didn't work at all, put him all the way at the back.

00:11:04Orta's saying something wrong with his car, didn't quite catch what the complaint was.

00:11:08But he's gone for it.

00:11:09Yeah, well, it's Makino who's leading the queue, but it's Orta who seemed to have some kind of concern.

00:11:14So, well, let's see if he can keep up with the top two of this restart.

00:11:17Well, this is an opportunity for Tanisuke Makino.

00:11:19He was a little bit annoyed last year of picking up the victory by default.

00:11:22He certainly wants to go and win it, winning away.

00:11:25But you've got Fraga in the Nakajima, looks hungrier and certainly looks very strong

00:11:30as they come off the final turn and down the home straight.

00:11:32It's green, green, green, green.

00:11:34And off we go again, Emotegi.

00:11:36On to the first racing lap since the start.

00:11:39Makino, Fraga, Orta, Iwasa, Yamashita and Fukuzumi.

00:11:43As the field starts to work their way back.

00:11:44And on the inside, Shotsubo is going to get on the inside immediately

00:11:47to dive in on Hibiki Taina.

00:11:49No problems at all getting through.

00:11:50And he's going to be joined by Saito Nanaka.

00:11:52That's the way to get back into it.

00:11:54Saito Nanaka doing his best to follow in pursuit of Shotsuboi.

00:11:58And he has made it stick.

00:11:59Great move.

00:12:00Yeah, we didn't really pick up on it.

00:12:02But Rikito Kobayashi, the other substitute,

00:12:05is all the way at the back of the field in 20th place.

00:12:07So Saito Nanaka has obviously got the advantage of the two Toyota Super Subs.

00:12:12And he'll fancy as well his chances on trying to beat Kizuto Kotaka

00:12:17in the other TGM car and stake his claim to get a mid-season promotion,

00:12:22which we know is a possibility for Nanaka at that team, TGM.

00:12:25So now McInerney trying to pull clear of Igor Fraga.

00:12:28He's already found a second and very nearly a half.

00:12:31So this is going very well indeed for McInerney,

00:12:34who is basically in qualifying mode now

00:12:36to try and stretch as far ahead of Igor Fraga

00:12:38and the rest of the pack as possible.

00:12:40That certainly will make his life easier,

00:12:42having Igor Fraga between himself and Kakadoshinota

00:12:44in terms of the strategy.

00:12:46He can now definitely play the lead figure in that battle.

00:12:49but Shotsuboi is doing the best he can in the Toms crew

00:12:52to work his way closer to Fenestras.

00:12:55Meanwhile, Fenestras has got problems of his own.

00:12:57Kazia Oshima trying to go right around the outside of him.

00:13:00That's going to be a stunning move.

00:13:01Oshima makes that work with beauty and grace on the outside.

00:13:05That's really going to hurt Fenestras heading to the pit stop window.

00:13:10Well, some people say Oshima is not motivated,

00:13:12but he certainly had a lot of motivation to get past Sasha Fenestras there.

00:13:16Great move by the veteran.

00:13:19And the oldest driver in the field, actually, with Kamil Kobayashi,

00:13:21who's normally the oldest driver absent,

00:13:23as we see Juju there in the white and green car.

00:13:25With three cars behind there, Atsushi Miyake,

00:13:27plus both of the input cars.

00:13:28So good going there so far for Juju in P17.

00:13:32Certainly the best start we've ever seen from Juju Noda in race trim,

00:13:36rather than actually, you know, considering she started dead last.

00:13:40She's made her way past three cars on merit.

00:13:42So that's definitely good work from her and the Triple Tree racing team.

00:13:45Getting better all the time.

00:13:46Now, we've got a big pressure cooker bubbling here for fourth place.

00:13:49We've got Iwasa, Yubashita, and Iroh Fukuzumi,

00:13:52who I wasn't expecting to be in the top six by this point.

00:13:55So Fukuzumi definitely taking advantage on the start.

00:13:58Side by side, that's Miyake.

00:13:59Miyake is going to try and fend off from Takabashi,

00:14:02who around the outside finally gives us a flash of brilliance.

00:14:05We've been waiting for this from Mitsunori Takabashi.

00:14:07We didn't see anything like this in Suzuka.

00:14:09It's good to see the man we know has talent pull it off in great style there,

00:14:14and this could just be the beginning.

00:14:17Yeah, the Nissan GT500 battle there.

00:14:19In fact, those two shared a car last year in Tsubu-PT, Takabashi Miyake.

00:14:23But you can see Juju is holding these three cars up now.

00:14:27As we see Kobayashi go for a little dive on that Tsubu-Shi Miyake,

00:14:30I think he's going to make that one stick.

00:14:31So Miyake goes to the back if he's unable to respond to Kobayashi at the bottom of the hill.

00:14:36But Juju now has already lost two seconds to Shinkoide, who's the next car on the road.

00:14:41So for the team in full cars, they need to try and clear Juju as quickly as possible.

00:14:46That's the toughest task Juju Noda has ever had,

00:14:48dealing with Mitsunori Takabashi in a wheel-to-wheel.

00:14:51That's going to be fun.

00:14:52Meanwhile, back to the front, and we can see there Sekiguchi trying to stay with Najiri.

00:14:56O'Sullivan doing a fair job after his good start.

00:14:59Shinkoide needs to make more progress than this.

00:15:01He lost a few positions at the start.

00:15:03So far Juju Noda on the overtake button to try and give her a little bit more breathing space.

00:15:08But it's going to be an interesting one as Tadisuke Makino puts another fastest lap in the next.

00:15:12Right, this could be fascinating between the in-ball teammates.

00:15:15Kobayashi trying to get the move done on Takabashi before Takabashi gets Noda.

00:15:18And he's through. Fair play to the 19-year-old who really is showcasing himself here.

00:15:24Yeah, Rikuto Kobayashi, a little star in the making, I think, I have to say.

00:15:29He's been much more impressive than I expected.

00:15:31And here he goes on Juju having a little look into turn five there.

00:15:35Didn't quite make the move stick, but it's surely not going to be long before he gets the move done here.

00:15:39Perhaps he can set up something into this high-speed section.

00:15:43Oh, and he does.

00:15:43Oh, my word. What a star.

00:15:45He does it. Fantastic.

00:15:46Great move by Rikuto Kobayashi.

00:15:48He's got a few seconds now, 3.2 seconds up the road to Shinkoide.

00:15:51And with a bit of clear air ahead of him, he can put in some quick laps now.

00:15:55This is the best job interview I've ever seen.

00:15:58Absolutely fantastic from Rikuto Kobayashi.

00:16:00You need to sign me up full-time, boys.

00:16:02I know what I'm doing.

00:16:03Absolutely brilliant.

00:16:04The fact that he went for Juju Noda, a mere corner after dealing with Mitsunori Takabashi.

00:16:09And I have to say, full credit to both drivers there, because Juju wasn't phased.

00:16:13And Rikuto Kobayashi didn't buckle under the pressure and spear into her, which could easily have happened.

00:16:18Don't forget, these two are both teenagers in the second quickest single-seater car on the planet.

00:16:23So fair play to them for managing to get that turned in and dialed up nicely.

00:16:28That was very good work from both of them.

00:16:30Ultimately, Kobayashi was always going to make the move stick,

00:16:33but I'm really impressed with how both of them handled that situation.

00:16:35Here's Oshima.

00:16:36As up the inside, that's a big move.

00:16:38That is a return to form from Saito Nanaka.

00:16:41Gets the run on the inside of Kuzuto Kotaka now.

00:16:44So he's ahead of both TGM GP cars.

00:16:48Suboi, we didn't see that, but Suboi obviously cleared Kotaka earlier,

00:16:51so now he's only one position behind.

00:16:53Venestratas, now Takabashi finally gets his turn going on the attack against Juju.

00:16:57I think he's going to get this move done, because it looks like he's all the way alongside.

00:17:00Juju has nowhere to go, and it has to concede another position to Atsushi Miyake there.

00:17:04So she goes down to P20.

00:17:07But for Takabashi, he'll be really frustrated that he didn't get that move done sooner,

00:17:11because it opened the door for his much younger teammate.

00:17:14You know, Takabashi, 32 years old.

00:17:16Rikuto Kobayashi, just 19 second youngest in the field after Juju.

00:17:21And he's really shown up his older colleague.

00:17:24So there's Nanaka getting the move done.

00:17:26That was gutsy.

00:17:27That was properly taken by Satananaka. Not going to wait around, not going to faff about.

00:17:32And that was absolutely brilliant. And he needed to do that. I think he would have been very disappointed

00:17:36indeed after qualifying. So that was a needed move that was necessary, not just to benefit his race,

00:17:43but to give him a good light in favor of all the other rookies that are on the grid today.

00:17:47So that was excellently done. Textbook from Satananaka.

00:17:50Now Otter is putting just as much pressure on Fraga as we expected we thought he would.

00:17:56So this is not going to be easy for Fraga because he's got to try and stay

00:18:00around the two second mark to Makino.

00:18:02But he's also going to try and make sure he doesn't get leapfrogged by Otter in the pit stop.

00:18:06This is pretty interesting now because I think Makino, you know, if I was a betting man,

00:18:11I'd say Makino is almost certain to come in on lap 10 because we've often seen him do that anyway

00:18:14in the best of times. But what does Otter do? He's 2.9 seconds behind his teammate now.

00:18:19That's not going to be possible to bridge with a one lap overcut. So does that give him no choice

00:18:25but to go to the end of the race potentially? It's a tough one. Or does he focus purely on trying

00:18:33to jump Fraga, make it a Dandelion 1.2 and forget about beating his teammate today? That's not

00:18:37a strategy any driver really wants to take willingly, but obviously it's a long season ahead

00:18:42thinking about the championship. Here's his radio.

00:18:52Otter being encouraged to try and get some clean air, maybe back off a little bit from the back of

00:18:57Fraga. So perhaps they are preparing him to go longer in this race. Iwasa a couple seconds down

00:19:04the road in P4 and then this battle here to Mokinogiri versus Senes Takaguchi. But this is a real

00:19:11headache for Dandelion Racing. What does Fraga do? Does he try and just, does he just pit at the same time

00:19:15as Mokinogiri versus Senes Takaguchi? I don't know. I don't know. It's right, you've got two

00:19:18minutes after it's in the year. No, bye.

00:19:24Fraga being said, you can, you can go with either strategy either is okay for us, which means I

00:19:28guess either lap 10 or stay out. So Fraga's got another lap and a half or so to make a decision

00:19:34before he has to tell the Nakajima team what he intends to do. But of course we are approaching that pit

00:19:39window now, it opens on lap 10. So at the end of the next lap, we're going to see who's first to dive to the pits.

00:19:45This is arguably the best chance a Nakajima racing driver has had of winning a race

00:19:50in Super Formula since the last time it happened for Naoki Yamamoto here three years ago. So

00:19:56Igor Fraga in with a good chance, but this is such a difficult strategy to call now. You lose 22 seconds

00:20:02plus the time of the pit stop itself going through pit lane as we saw there. But the question is when

00:20:07do you lose that time? Do you commit to the tyres that you're on and try and make them last as long

00:20:11as humanly possible and then only have a couple of laps at most to have an intrigue?

00:20:16Here's an interesting tactic as well. Who goes first in the pits? Fenestras or Suboi at Team

00:20:22Toms? Who do you charge the first pit stop to? The reigning champion or the comeback kid? This will be

00:20:27fascinating.

00:20:28I think if Fenestras wasn't given the priority he would be very upset and justifiably so. I think

00:20:35uh I'm sure his argument will be well I'm the car ahead so qualified ahead okay it wasn't a great

00:20:41start but I have to be given priority here as we see the Toms uh engineers busy on the pit wall. I'm

00:20:47sure a decision will be made just around now but he's that Suboi's losing time in the dirty air here

00:20:53and I don't think there'll be any team orders but it's uh it's certain I think they'll be that they

00:20:58might be tempted just to pit Fenestras to get him out the way of Suboi and try and let Suboi go longer

00:21:02perhaps. So if I had to predict tough to say that might be what I would do in that situation.

00:21:07So maybe they would go Fenestras lap 10. If that's the case would Suboi go lap 11 to try and jump him?

00:21:13This could be fascinating in terms of the dynamics. Meanwhile we've got Najiri still not really gaining

00:21:19on Fukuzumi is he? He doesn't seem to have a lot of pace here yet again. Suboki Najiri great in qualifying

00:21:26not so great on uh race trim but even here qualifying has really abandoned him in terms of form.

00:21:32this is yet another difficult race battle for Tomoko Najiri. You do kind of wonder is that third

00:21:37championship title ever going to come again or is this now the standard that we're going to see from

00:21:42Tomoko Najiri moving forward? Yeah well he needs to find something doesn't he in this in this common

00:21:48damper era he was probably the driver most individually affected by that change uh and if you can't find a

00:21:54solution with his new engineer Kento Taguchi then I think you do have to question because he's 35 years old

00:21:59he's not in his first flush of youth uh he's he's among the oldest drivers he's the oldest driver in

00:22:04the Honda camp for sure after Naoki Yamamoto's retirement so he hasn't gonna he isn't gonna have

00:22:10that many more chances and if it's not this year then you do have to ask when is it gonna be?

00:22:15Especially when you've got so many great young pretenders in the Honda camp coming up. Here's Zach!

00:22:19Um, yeah starting to dig green to bits but I can manage. Rhea is starting to go.

00:22:26There you go Rhea's starting to go on the condo as Zach O'Sullivan reports obviously in English

00:22:30so no need for translations on that one. Passing the pits goes the leader right Makano is not coming

00:22:35into lap 10. Otter is right there we go so they obviously decided then Makano's comfortable out front

00:22:41he's happy he's two seconds clear of Fraga so Kakunoshinota decides to bite the bullet. Yamashita

00:22:45comes in so does Najiri so does Kazia Oshima and we're looking to see who else that's the first of

00:22:51the TGMs so that's Kotaka also Shinkoide so there you go the first people into the pits and it's

00:22:58fascinating that Kakunoshinota has decided to go ugly early. Well clearly Makano said I'm fine out front

00:23:05thank you very much he's got a two second gap over Fraga and probably from his perspective he was

00:23:09thinking well the danger is not Fraga the danger is is Otter. Now Otter coming out just behind that

00:23:15Tsushimiaki so he's on fresh tyres he'll have the the pace to get past but he is going to have to get

00:23:20past he is going to lose time and he was already what three almost three seconds I think at the last

00:23:27count behind the other dandelion car so if Makano can maintain his pace reasonably well as we see

00:23:33Koide come out the pits Kotaka's had a slow stop hasn't he because he was ahead of Koide on the

00:23:38way in in fact he's had a very slow stop because he's he's not just a bit behind Koide he's a long

00:23:42way behind Koide so something's gone wrong there for TGM GP but I think Makano as we see Yamashita

00:23:48trying to get his tyres up to temperature now got Tomoki Nogiri right behind him that's not what he

00:23:51would have wanted to see coming out of the pits so a little bit of a slow stop perhaps for Conway racing as

00:23:55well. Yeah considering Yamashita came into the pits in P4 and Nogiri was down in P7 that's definitely not

00:24:02where Kondo wanted to be one lap later pit stop entry what's going to happen is Tanisuke Makano staying

00:24:08out he is indeed Fraga goes on as well so this is going to be interesting between these two does

00:24:14Fraga genuinely feel he can stay relevant to Makano and keep intimidating him on this part of the stint

00:24:20meanwhile in comes Fukuzumi Sakaguchi that's uh oh Sullivan's coming to the pits as well so has

00:24:28Fenestras so uh Team Toms man Shotsu boy carries on and I think that's all she wrote for the pit

00:24:34stops on lap 11 but this is going to be a critical one for Sena Sakaguchi he wants to beat O'Sullivan out

00:24:40so this could get very interesting we've also got as I mentioned before Nido Fukuzumi coming in they've

00:24:45got to try and get the pit exit right beats out the Toms car beats out everybody that'll do nicely for Nido

00:24:52Fukuzumi. Fenestras has jumped O'Sullivan in the pits they came in the other way around

00:24:57and I I was just going to say I'm really surprised as we see now Yamashita and Nogira will flash by on

00:25:02their their fresh tyres or up to temperature tyres rather so that won't be much of a battle but I'm

00:25:07really surprised that Toms didn't pit a car on lap 10 and I do wonder whether Fenestras resisted the

00:25:13call to come in uh on lap 10 uh just pure speculation on my part but I find it I don't really understand

00:25:20why you would leave it a lap later I don't think there's much to be gained there but it has released

00:25:23Suboi crucially into clean air now so that that's a good uh development for Toms

00:25:29and that means that Shotsuboi can start to push on a long stint and it will be a long stint for sure

00:25:34for Shotsuboi because he's one of the few drivers in this paddock who can really make a long stint work

00:25:39for him so he's definitely one of the tyre senseis in this grid to really make it work just so you know

00:25:45as well by the way when the cars come through that long flat out right hander and you start to see some

00:25:49white smoke coming up behind them that's not actually an issue with the car that's the way

00:25:54that the car goes through that particular camber it's a little bit of dust that gets kicked out

00:25:58from the rear of the car so nothing to worry about certainly no technical problem you need to concern

00:26:03yourself with there it looks spectacular it certainly looks as if a car is in trouble but

00:26:07it's actually not right Suboi is 10 seconds back now from the race leader Makido that's podium worthy

00:26:14if he can keep the tyres working longer than the two or three guys in front yeah well that's the

00:26:19thing isn't it he's he's got a lot of cars that he's kind of racing for position in that sort of

00:26:23lower half of the top 10 Fukuzumi Sakaguchi Yamashita now that's not worked out for Yamashita has it he's

00:26:30he's lost positions there so he's he's he's dropped behind uh Sakaguchi and Fukuzumi uh in he was ahead

00:26:37of both drivers wasn't he so that's uh most condo drivers have suffered in the pit stops uh in terms of

00:26:43the order in Nigeria as well because okay we were talking about him being close to Yamashita but

00:26:47uh he was certainly ahead of Sakaguchi wasn't he um lost uh i think he was one place behind

00:26:52Fukuzumi but he still lost out there in the in terms of the order um so i'm trying to watch for the

00:26:58gap now between the two dandelion drivers i think that is really what we need to to keep a close eye

00:27:02on uh from from from this point onwards can Orta uh keep up the pace or rather can he make use of

00:27:10those new tires uh to try and close the gap he's got five seconds of clean air because a lot of the

00:27:14slower cars Miyake Takaguchi uh Juju all pitted on lap 11 so that's good news uh for Kaka no Shinota

00:27:22it's now lap 13 seven cars haven't pitted don't expect any of them to pit now because there really

00:27:28isn't any point at all pitting on lap 13 or lap 14 even for that matter with this strategy it's now

00:27:34these seven drivers have committed to going a bit further into the race these are one of two

00:27:39mindsets now for the driver hope for a safety car or push those sides like stick to the end and

00:27:45genuinely feel like you can get some pace from it and one man who could make that happen is Shotsuboi

00:27:50however not at the current pace because he's done a 135 7 which admittedly is quicker than he has gone

00:27:56recently but the gap was 10 seconds between himself and Tanosuke Makado uh it's now 14.7 into the pits

00:28:02though does come Seitan and Naka not entirely sure what the point of that is on lap 13.

00:28:09That's a bit of a puzzler maybe he was uh complaining of uh of the tires not lasting as he hoped but he's

00:28:14got some he's got a nice gap there between Oshima and uh looks like Shinkoide in the background so uh

00:28:21maybe they just felt he's got a there there was a clear gap to to move him into at most so the gap between

00:28:27the two dandelion drivers on the at the last count at the end of lap 13 was was 27 seconds

00:28:32so that's the gap we need to watch out for that's right on the cusp um and I and I do think that

00:28:38that Orta is going to be in a position to potentially undercut on that basis but obviously Makado will

00:28:44have the advantage at the end so Makado might be in a position where he has to uh he has to uh find his

00:28:50way past Orta on track with the benefit of fresh rubber that could be a really exciting battle who's

00:28:55going to save OTS at the end of the race we saw that play a really critical role in determining the

00:29:00very first race of the season at Suzuka maybe we'll see the same thing again here with the two

00:29:04dandelion drivers so now it becomes a little bit about pace for Fraga but he is working these tires

00:29:11beautifully any other driver there chasing down particularly in an Akajima might have seen the gap

00:29:17decree uh open up quite dramatically between themselves and Makado but look at this Fraga

00:29:21is never really more than two and a half seconds back from Tanosuke Makado he's an equal to him if

00:29:27there's an issue in terms of a slip up in the pit stop if there's an issue with traffic on the way out

00:29:32of the pits for Makado whatever it might be there's a chance here for Fraga he might just be able to jump

00:29:39him it's going to be very close between him and Orta as well though Orta's catching up with Rikato

00:29:45Kobayashi and that could be uh a bit of a disadvantage for for Orta there's always the danger here at

00:29:51Motegi it's a tough track to pass uh he will be able to make the move on on fresh tires but he will

00:29:56probably lose time in the process there is the gap there is Kakanochi and Orta number six dandelion racing

00:30:02and it's Rikato Kobayashi up ahead p6 uh on the road but of course yet to stop so realistically much

00:30:08further down the order um so Orta's going to have to make that move as swiftly as possible he's not

00:30:13really closing on Makino much it has to be said 26.9 at the last count but that's only a couple of

00:30:19tenths uh quicker so Makino's really managing the tires managing the pace very well here and doing

00:30:26exactly what he needs if he can just stretch that out to 28 seconds or so he's going to be in a position

00:30:32to hopefully come out ahead of Kakanochi and Orta when he stops of course if Orta can keep it pretty

00:30:38much bang on 27 then that's danger territory when he gets out of the pits he's got to make sure he'll

00:30:44get the tires warmed up quickly or Orta can get him before he even has time to blink it's going to be

00:30:49fascinating for Tanisuke Makino to try and maintain this Igor Fraga almost has half the vote at the

00:30:55moment in terms of driver of the race and I don't blame them this is a magnificent effort from Igor

00:31:01Fraga still only 1.9 back from Makino this race is wide open for me Makino needs to be thinking about

00:31:07not just Fraga in his mirrors but Otter who is now 26.8 behind him that's just a little bit too

00:31:12close to danger zone for me as you rightly said he needs another second to be comfortable he needs

00:31:18another two or three to be safe it's going to have to hope that Rikuto Kobayashi I don't think

00:31:24Kobayashi is going to do anything untoward in his first super formula race but hope that he just makes

00:31:29it a little bit tricky for Orta to to get past but I do think that Orta now is he on the OTS no

00:31:35sound of the lights flashing but he might get doesn't mean to be here yeah there we go in fact

00:31:39he what I think he was on the OTS because then the the lights now blinking slowly which indicates the

00:31:44cool down period so that is exactly the kind of incitative move that Orta needs to do surely Rikuto is

00:31:51not going to have another go is he no I don't think so he's not going to have the tyres to live

00:31:55or the pace in general I think tyres regardless to live with Kakinoshinota but Hibiki Tyre is only a

00:32:01little bit further up the road and the gaps come down to 26.2 despite the overtake so Kakinoshinota is

00:32:09looking a potential winner here he is definitely doing the work look at his lap times they are pretty

00:32:15consistent and they are pretty quick here's Shotsuboi who's got to hope that he can just keep the car

00:32:20running and fluid the gap is 14 seconds now he's kept that fairly consistent I wouldn't say a podium

00:32:26is on but I would definitely say points are now because Shotsuboi has definitely found a decent amount

00:32:31of time what's his gap going to look like back to Yamash Topal 10th position is looking possible

00:32:39but even Shotsuboi even the master Shotsuboi is going to have to find something special here

00:32:45he's going to have to rely on the tyre offset at the end of the race to try and make up a couple

00:32:50of positions I think like you say he is going to be looking at a very minor points finish unless he

00:32:56can make up some ground on track which I'm sure they'll they'll pit him in with a few at least a

00:33:00few laps to spare because you need there's no it's actually pointless coming in on lap 32 even though you

00:33:06can unless you're going for the prey for a safety car strategy you need time to actually make use of

00:33:12of your tyres to actually take advantage of your rubber being two seconds a lap potentially quicker

00:33:17than your opponent so probably four or five laps to go is is the very latest that makes sense because

00:33:24if otherwise you're just you're just leaving that advantage on the table um so that's going to be

00:33:28fascinating to see uh if if you can if you can actually translate that extra pace into some on track

00:33:35moves he's going to have to if he wants to score big in this race this race is a three-man battle

00:33:40for the victory I swear it Tarasuke Makoto is now only 1.6 ahead of Fraga so he's got to keep that in

00:33:46his mindset because Fraga he's getting he comes in Fraga's pitting on lap 17 well that's fascinating

00:33:53Fraga's got a bit of a trick up his sleeve here by the look of it so Nakajima had pitted him in

00:33:59well that's a very unusual lap to do it and that may be why because Kakadoshi Ota is now currently

00:34:03stuck behind Ibiki Taira are they going to try something very special here because that is an

00:34:09unusual lap to make this decision I don't think he's going to get ahead of Ota despite the fact

00:34:15that Ota was clearly uh losing time in relation to Ibiki Taira in fact there they go but I think he's

00:34:21going to be comfortably ahead of the queue headed up by Nirei Fukuzumi which is there the light blue

00:34:26car in fact Fukuzumi's escaped a little bit has he from Senesakaguchi so that has worked out

00:34:31reasonably well he's still tracking for a podium um but it's that's the piggy in the middle strategy

00:34:37rarely works so we're very interested to hear from Fraga after the race as we see Rikuzo

00:34:42probably actually a bit slow out on his way out that's just sadly in a bit of an experience there

00:34:46but still shouldn't take the sheen away from a good job so far

00:34:50yeah he has colored himself in glory I have to say as Ota now makes his move on the inside of

00:34:54Ibiki Taira that puts him up into fourth position and I think Tadesuke Makano is

00:34:59needing to be running scared here now because Kakadoshi Ota is definitely in race winning danger zone now

00:35:06because this is a gap of about 25 seconds don't forget it's 22 seconds plus the pit stop itself

00:35:13so I don't think Tadesuke Makano is particularly safe here he's got 25.9 over his teammate

00:35:19Akano Shinota he could do with a little bit more than that he comes in straight away

00:35:23right so he's going to counteract it with better tyres I think Akano Shinota is going to be leading

00:35:27here no problem yeah yeah he had to he had to pick to cover cover Fraga otherwise he was looking at

00:35:33being a net p3 you know Fraga was in a good position he's got clean air he's going to be a good position

00:35:37to undercut Ota's finally free of Ibiki Taira so we're going to be in a situation now where Ota is going to

00:35:43to take the lead of the race to see Makano reach his box but he's going to have to survive on old tyres

00:35:48against this man who almost certainly uh is going to get out ahead of Fraga in the pits as well

00:35:55so out onto the circuit we go and that's Kakadoshi Shinota sweeping by is it Makano tries to beat him to

00:36:02the first corner and locks up his tyres in the process well there's no love lost between the Dandelion

00:36:07teammates but Makano very nearly plotting his copybook there as now Ayumu Awasa has a chance to

00:36:13jumping off Fraga don't forget so no he's on cold tyres no he's not going to go he's on the colder tyres

00:36:18is he but he's got to make sure then that he stays in front of Fukuzumi who is going to be on better tyres

00:36:23so that could be an interesting one Fukuzumi might get a chance here to leap from past the Mugen unless

00:36:28he doesn't do it in the next three corners yeah I don't think Fukuzumi is going to be quite close

00:36:34enough I think uh yeah it looks like probably only half a lap or so here by the time you get to this

00:36:40high speed sweeper I think your tyres are going to be in a reasonable window in the kind of temperatures

00:36:44we have today so I think unless Fukuzumi is about to blast a load of OTS uh but he's on the cool down

00:36:51period so he can't do that so I think Ayumu Awasa will be safe in in fifth place net P4 he's still going

00:36:57to have to keep a close eye on his mirrors coming into the hairpin but I think he should just about be safe

00:37:03well the race leader now is Shotsuboi if he gets a safety car now oh my word if Shotsuboi gets a

00:37:10safety car now he is the the absolute dandiest lucksmith in the entirety of Japan mind you Shotsuboi is

00:37:19currently charging to try and beat his teammate Sasha Fenestraz to the final point for my money he might

00:37:25get a chance to jump Najiri and get himself into ninth place there might be a chance for that it is

00:37:31Shotsuboi don't forget yeah that will be the target to get him out in that gap between Yamashita

00:37:38and Norgiri and then hopefully use the new tyres to make up a couple of positions but of course

00:37:43any hopes of beating the Dandelion crew I think even if there was a safety car I think they would

00:37:48be they would be clear wouldn't they that they're that close behind now 11.1 seconds the gap between

00:37:53Savoy and Otter um but you never know what can happen it's uh in his position uh it is worth

00:38:00trying to stick it out and try and get into a position to get ahead of Norgiri uh on the racetrack

00:38:06so let's see what happens now because Makino has the fresher tyres then Kakinoshinota

00:38:13by about six laps so this could be an interesting duel now between them but don't forget this time last

00:38:18year they had the same duel

00:38:21the boy saying uh it's it's tough the tyres the tyres are dying so I think he's going to be in the pits

00:38:30pretty soon so clearly for Fraga you know that we were talking about the the the piggy in the middle

00:38:36strategy not working but I just don't think the tyres are lasting as long as they hoped or expected

00:38:41certainly not as long as they were at Suzuka so I think Suboi is almost certainly going to be on his way

00:38:46into the pits now he's gone as long as he could he's made it to what lap 20 of 33 in he comes the

00:38:51reigning champion let's see how good this stop is from Tom's and where it puts him on the track

00:38:56so here today at Motegi you certainly can't go to the end of the race on these tyres they've gone

00:39:01beyond half distance of course so where does Shotsuboi filter out will he be ahead of Najiri

00:39:06ahead of Fenestras or ahead of Zach O'Sullivan that is kind of where he's going to be looking at he might

00:39:12just get one point out of this look at Makino already hunting down Kakino Shinota that did not

00:39:17take him long to get up to speed and he is absolutely wanting to beat him in a fair fight

00:39:21don't forget this is a different situation to last year they have started the season stronger

00:39:26better faster and now both men feel like they're the one here's Shotsuboi he's in front of Najiri

00:39:32he's managed to get ahead of Najiri now he's got to stay there that is going to be mission impossible

00:39:37even for someone like Shotsuboi to stay in front of Najiri is going to be an absolute nightmare to

00:39:42handle but he's trying to box Najiri in to give Fenestras a chance to go for him this could be

00:39:47fascinating if he could stay in front before the long flat right-hander then he's done it and here

00:39:52comes Fenestras trying to take on Najiri round the outside Fenestras with an opportunity Najiri has been

00:39:59thwarted by both team tomsmen Fenestras up the inside he's got him absolutely terrific Fenestras with

00:40:07assistance from his teammate they both got ahead of the double champion amazing stuff and now look

00:40:13at the two dandelion cars nose to tail Makino's got much more OTS is he going to have a look even as

00:40:17early as this lap i think potentially look how close he is in the slipstream as they come down the hill

00:40:22towards turn 11. Otter not on the OTS by the looks of it Makino goes to the outside but not close enough

00:40:28this time it's deja vu it's 2024 all over again and Makino almost getting side by side to this teammate in the

00:40:36left hand before the pits my goodness these two are absolutely adamant i'm the team leader i'm the

00:40:43top dog i'm the best of the dandelion crew Makino side by side with Otter they're both on OTS

00:40:48millimeters between them Otter trying to hold it around the outside Makino forces the issue on the

00:40:53inside they're still side by side on the curb oh Otter's forced to the curb Makino squeezes in front

00:41:00brilliant racing between the teammates take that Kaku i'm still the number one wow Otter was not

00:41:07willing to say no for an answer there was he he clung on as long as he possibly could but he's got

00:41:12less OTS he's got less tires i think he's got no realistic way of getting back ahead now unless

00:41:18Makino makes a mistake and don't forget evil Fraga is only one point he's only 1.7 seconds behind so he can't

00:41:24afford to be he's and he's and Fraga has the tire advantage so i think the battle now is realistically

00:41:30for p2 for Kaku no Shinota well but he really didn't want to let that go did he i mean you have

00:41:35to admire his fighting spirit but he was always on to uh he was always it was that was never going to

00:41:41work for him was it this could go on all season between these two absolutely brilliant racecraft from

00:41:48both men Otter defiant Tanisuke Makino resolute i am gonna get past you whether you like it or not

00:41:56Igor Fraga as you mentioned only a second and a half back now for Otter who is on OTS but so too is

00:42:02Igor Fraga he is looking menacing in the background cue the jaws music can the new boy take on the

00:42:08established guard yeah if you could split the dandelions that would be a really that would be an

00:42:15incredible achievement for for a rookie and for and for a team that you know isn't necessarily

00:42:20used to being a a regular podium contender they've had the odd flash of brilliance Rensar to of course

00:42:25come on the podium in suzuka uh but for Igor Fraga to be to be you know going toe to toe with the top

00:42:31team really at the moment you have to say on the on the evidence of this season so far at least and and

00:42:36you know awas has not not threatened well tough to pick up that message all the static but he did

00:42:46say uh ah you know uh said damn it on it uh no good isn't it it's it's the tires that clearly there

00:42:53was no way it was a kind of a sigh of resignation there was no way he was uh gonna gonna keep that

00:42:58position as we see now uh number 20 takaboshi going wheel to wheel with one of the tgm cars

00:43:04sabika tyra and tyra's got a hair he has indeed yeah so uh good good uh good move there for tyra

00:43:11who of course is on the newer tires because he was uh quite a bit later into the pits

00:43:15otter's dropping he's dropping into the clutch as a big old fraga here we go has the new boy got

00:43:20enough know-how to take on kakano shinota he has been absolutely eating up the road to catch him

00:43:26and here's another man who's been doing a fantastic job kudos here to katsuya oshima the oldest man in

00:43:32in the field and he is taking on to mokin ajiri the two-time champion if he could put one over on the

00:43:38the the sorcerer of qualifying this would be an amazing feather in the cap for katsuya oshima this

00:43:45is the lap i'm sure that igor fraga is going to get his shout on kakano shinota expect him to go for

00:43:50him as soon as humanly possible he won't want a second invitation yeah he's on the ots as well so

00:43:56fraga's fraga can see p2 within his grasp i don't think he's going to be close enough to have a go

00:44:01here into turn one it's it's a deceptively kind of high speed corner actually it's it's very difficult

00:44:06you have to be all the way alongside realistically to get the move done there i think turns three and

00:44:11four in some ways is a little bit easier to get the move done but he's still not close enough is he

00:44:16but fraga he's still got the ots advantage on his side he is burning through quite a bit of it now but

00:44:22i think he's still going to have more remaining than auto once he comes off the button so i still

00:44:27think that fraga has got every chance here of getting ahead of auto but yeah there's a there's

00:44:32a an offset here of seven laps in terms of the tire life so clearly that's going to work in fraga's

00:44:37advantage so not just yet he had to wait for his opportunity there he's a little bit scruffy

00:44:43while on ots in the first sector that's why he had to bail off ots to give himself a little bit more

00:44:48later on to have another go but he has got the tire advantage that's going to do him a

00:44:52a lot of favors on the run down to the back straight but i think otter would use some of

00:44:56that ots to try and cover him off while fraga's on cooldown there is the battle further back this is

00:45:02shot suboi in p7 he's worked his way ahead of kenti yamashina we didn't see that so he has worked

00:45:09his way forward let's have a look at how he did it oh master class yamashina didn't even put up a fight

00:45:15boy had the move done before they reached the braking zone so

00:45:19so clearly those newer tires it's the offset we're talking about and now it's the other

00:45:24import car i think of rickito kobayashi going towed to tow with the miki tyra or is that kotaka it could

00:45:31be kotaka actually that's very nicely done from rickito kobayashi who does indeed get ahead of

00:45:35kazuta kotaka apparently no investigation necessary between car 65 and a yuma

00:45:43awasa fraga fraga and awasa at turn one what happened there between those two then there's

00:45:50no investigation necessary we didn't we didn't know there was one we didn't know anything happened

00:45:54between them i mean no investigation necessary because nothing happened i mean fraga was side

00:45:58by side with the dandelion car i don't know what they're talking about really was that a time a

00:46:02timing issue there i wonder on the thing you never know that's a strange one

00:46:07anyway shotsuboi is now heating it up and going for center sakaguchi we said a point or two might

00:46:11be possible but shotsuboi on fresher tires than any of the drivers around him he could make p5 here

00:46:17he's got the opportunity to get past sakaguchi first and then fukizumi i think that's about all

00:46:22he could get but that's fifth position on the bogey circuit again everybody needs to be terrified of

00:46:28shotsuboi when we hit fuji because he's going to be unstoppable this is this is ominous stuff isn't

00:46:35it i mean even and don't forget he was p14 after the first lap and if he hadn't had that moment where

00:46:41he was delayed by the crashing cars of sato and uh and or you then he might be even further up now

00:46:49i mean we were all banging on about tatsuki makino and kakino shinoto and yuma awasa and ego fraga

00:46:54but this is the man this is the danger man in 2025 shotsuboi is getting the first four rubbish races

00:47:01out of the way he's on ots he's going to stop us sakaguchi again sakaguchi just has no response

00:47:07because two boys used up so little of his ots up to this point oh sorry so much of his ots up to this

00:47:12point he could afford to take the gamble because he's gone later on the tires than anybody else around

00:47:17him so he can just go and throw caution to the winds with decent tires on his side so now he's up to

00:47:22six and he's got time and opportunity to go and get fukizumi yeah 2.8 seconds the gap and fukizumi was a

00:47:30a relatively early stopper coming in on lap 11 so there's a decent decent you know margin there for

00:47:35him to make use of the fresh tires still seven laps to go here makino now three seconds clear orta has

00:47:41kind of settled more into second place hasn't he so fraga fraga's probably taken the best from his

00:47:46tires i mean we're now almost 10 laps into his second stint uh iwasa in a similar situation

00:47:52although he came in one lap later didn't he compared to fraga um but it's gonna now i think fraga's

00:47:58best opportunity is probably gone as we see the other mugen driver this is this is to market the

00:48:04site of tomoki nojiri battling with kazoo oshima is one that i just can't quite get my head around in

00:48:09both directions or nojiri being so far down and oshima actually having a pretty decent season so

00:48:15far it has to be said this is a great start for the dokomo business rookie car kazoo oshima if he gets

00:48:22ahead of tomoko nojiri he's going to not only pass a two-time champion he's going to knock him out of

00:48:27the points that is how far the mighty are falling at this moment yes tomoko nojiri has not only got

00:48:35oshima to worry about he's got satan anaka to worry about as well and anaka is looking pretty

00:48:39hungry he hasn't got any ots left but he has got a car with a decent clout to it and he's got

00:48:45decent tire life as well by comparison to tomoko nojiri so this could be an absolute whitewash for

00:48:50the two-time champion he might just go tumbling down the order here it's only lap 27 and he's about

00:48:56to start that lap so this is going to be an absolute nightmare for tomoko nojiri with kazoo oshima

00:49:02hot on his heels can he survive it there'll be some serious soul searching going on uh on that

00:49:09side of the mugen garage tonight i think another race of course tomorrow we are qualifying you know

00:49:14just just after 9am tomorrow so there's not that much time for the teams to prepare but they've got

00:49:18to think of something because this kind of performance as tanaka san the team director watches on

00:49:23he's got one driver iwasa in the fight for podium actually i noticed on the graphic there

00:49:27he's got pretty much all of his ots left so he's clearly saving it for a sort of final assault

00:49:33uh on on the on the on the final podium positions hopefully in the last few laps but

00:49:37nojiri just can't seem to do anything right not only that is he's five seconds behind sasha

00:49:42fenestras the man who passed him uh coming up into this corner um well quite a few laps ago now wasn't

00:49:48it um already some time ago and uh and nojiri just has nothing no response whatsoever this is

00:49:55this is really unbecoming of the champion

00:50:01i think that was just nojiri venting some frustration as much as anything i don't think

00:50:05that was really uh anything other than a sort of a bit of a cry for help it sounded like

00:50:10so here's a holistic question for long-term super formula fans did liam lawson break tomoko

00:50:17nigiri's spirit because ever since liam lawson came on the scene nigiri has had some moments yes but

00:50:23he's been a shadow of his former self i do wonder we were talking about it earlier weren't we the

00:50:29change of engineer as we see awasa on the ots now so he's finally using what he's been saving up to

00:50:36try and uh uh uh make it make some inroads on on eagle fraga uh but i do wonder whether that that

00:50:42relationship just needs a bit longer to gel and almost a change from the change to to common dampers

00:50:48disadvantaging uh norjiri and then it's just another reset isn't it working with a new engineer

00:50:53even if it's one that he knows from being his performance engineer or being the performance

00:50:57engineer on the other side of the garage um but it might just take that little bit longer but it's

00:51:01time he doesn't have if he wants to be in this championship battle one thing we can say is that

00:51:06this is going to be a satisfying victory for tanesuke makino if he can hold it together in front of kaka oh

00:51:12snowing car in front that's one of the muggins is that yuma iwasa oh i can't believe it

00:51:19yuma iwasa is crawling fourth position is gone so fukusumi and suboi are now battling over p4

00:51:27showed suboi has got the world's most lucky four leaf clover in the entirety of motorsport

00:51:34it's amazing isn't it tomo kikoike there's nothing he can do now for his driver clearly

00:51:39that car going no further like you say suboi is in a great position now to well at worst p5 but

00:51:43the championship's gonna not swing that much away

00:51:50don't need to translate that and you can see it as well you can see him you know it's almost

00:51:57banging the dash in frustration and it's it's it's a tough world isn't it one week what do i have to

00:52:03to do formula one car the next you're trying to prove yourself in this category uh and and the car

00:52:10just lets you down what do i have to do to win a super formula race i am good enough to do it i've got

00:52:16the tools i've got the talent i just do not have the luck absolute horrendous luck for yuma iwasa

00:52:23and here comes shot suboi unbelievable he just storms around fukusumi how does

00:52:29stroke suboi do it where does he find the moves but it's effortless isn't it it's it's i i really

00:52:36want to talk to him about this in in detail because it it looks to me like he's using the ots in such a

00:52:41clever strategic way and giving himself the advantage a couple of argentine uh associates of

00:52:47sasha fenestras saw them on the grid uh with sasha um but there but it always looks to me like suboi is

00:52:53using the ots ots in such a way that it gives his opponent it's almost like they they arrive at the

00:53:00corner defeated already and they don't put up a fight and suboi doesn't use up any of his tires in

00:53:04the process it's magical it's really incredible look at him he doesn't even want to get out of the car

00:53:11he is so frustrated and you can't blame him here's when it happens turns in nothing oh nothing at all

00:53:20devastating absolutely heart-wrenching for yuma uwasa please change change gear come on you you can

00:53:29tell he was pressing every button possible on the steering wheel to try and get it to do something i

00:53:34wonder if it was an electrical shutdown it was hard to tell but it didn't look like there was much

00:53:37sort of on the screen of the steering wheel as it were um that's a real heartbreaker isn't it for yuma

00:53:43uwasa um and you can tell can't believe it oh he might he might be a formula one reserve driver

00:53:49but clearly this category means a lot to him as well well we were talking about isa kajar in the

00:53:56press in australia getting emotional looks like it works in all ways in the red bull camp because

00:54:03yuma uwasa can't hide his frustrations up the inside rikuto kobayashi another strong move and another

00:54:11strong job advert for rikuto kobayashi look i'm 19 i'm a super formula light spice champion i'm ready for

00:54:17this give me the keys to a permanent seat i could hack it they're taking advantage of the the attire

00:54:24life it's a shame that is his stop was so slow because i think he could he could have been he

00:54:29should have been up at least ahead of takabashi koide ahead of tyro should probably should have been

00:54:34knocking on the door of sort of 11th 12th place i think kobayashi if all had gone well so that's a

00:54:38really positive start his super formula career of course it's just for this weekend um but but for next

00:54:44year i think he's he's really shown as we've said already multiple times we've watched makino

00:54:49sereney on his way to to victory it looks like but uh yeah kobe actually shown that he's he's really

00:54:55in the mix for for a seat next year i think uh yeah if not before but but certainly for next year

00:55:02don't forget his start as well because on the very first lap he dropped to the back we didn't see

00:55:06what happened to brikuto kobayashi but he dropped to dead last so the fact that he's been able to do what

00:55:12he's done with the car the track is now clear at uh marshall post eight which is of course where

00:55:18yuma owasa parked his car so there's no need for a safety car katsuya oshima still going at it for

00:55:22tomoko nigiri who with his teammate retiring has put him up to ninth rather than tenth so he's still

00:55:28looking good for a point but that's a bit like telling a millionaire well today you're allowed to

00:55:33spend a fiver it's not exactly what tomoko nigiri is used to and there are satan anaka and zach o'sullivan

00:55:40not far away if the cliff suddenly becomes unbalanceable for tomoko nigiri this could be

00:55:46very painful indeed a very awkward final three laps could be happening here for tomoko nigiri

00:55:54shima was in on that was in the the very start as well so he doesn't have the tire life advantage

00:56:00which actually makes us all the more galling in some ways lalaka does have a small advantage

00:56:04o'sullivan not been a great race has it for the for the britain um will be disappointed to have that

00:56:09that slow stop obviously cost him cost him a bit of time but um certainly um not really kind of

00:56:16building on promise we saw at tizuka igor fragas doesn't seem to have the pace does he he's settled

00:56:21in behind kakinosh in orta um so i think orta doing well in many respects to actually you know settle

00:56:29into a rhythm and and run at the pace that allows him to keep fraga behind for i think you do need

00:56:34uh you know the seven lap off cut offset should have allowed in theory for i were to make the move

00:56:40so i think orta almost sort of punching above his way it might sound a bit odd to say considering that

00:56:45this is the order they started the race in um but but as when when you look at the strategy and how

00:56:50much how much further orta's having to go on those tires uh then i think it's a job well done

00:56:55i mean do you take into account with that conversation as well that igor fraga is a rookie

00:57:02or does that not really become part of the conversation still an impressive drive by fraga

00:57:08for sure i mean not to take anything away at all if he'd split the dandelions that would have been

00:57:12you know almost like a 10 out of 10 performance it's still probably a nine and a half if he finishes

00:57:17the way he is now so that's to take nothing away from igor fraga it's just uh it and like you say

00:57:24a rookie who you came here not really sure what to expect he was quick at suzuka but that's the

00:57:29track he'd done all the testing at he wasn't sure genuinely if if it was going to translate to this

00:57:33circuit he didn't have the easiest time in practice they went back and forth with the setup

00:57:38um but they obviously found something that works finally uh and and the podium will be a just reward

00:57:44one thing i do want to pick up on if we get another chance to look at that graphic on the last

00:57:47couple of laps look how much ots tadasuke makino has left compared to the likes of otter fraga

00:57:54suboi it's just been masterclass from tadasuke makino he's not needed to rely on the ots to get this

00:58:00done he's just used clever tactics smart thinking and superior racecraft very very good job from him

00:58:06indeed this might actually be makino's best win so far i mean it's certainly the most dominant i think we

00:58:15we can say that so uh you know and uh he clearly had the car underneath him didn't he i don't think

00:58:21or to i think it was never going to be an issue for him to to get the move done considering the the

00:58:28strategies they were on um so you know obviously it's fine margins it was very fine margin qualifying

00:58:35race pace and it seemed that makino just has that little bit more um but you know we've seen this

00:58:40battle between the two downline drivers swing back and forth so many times i wouldn't be surprised if

00:58:46we turn up tomorrow morning the weather forecast seems to indicate slightly cooler temperatures than

00:58:51today so that can always change the complexion very slightly these machines are so sensitive and

00:58:57even the smallest change conditions can can impact the performance quite considerably so

00:59:02it's by no means a done deal in terms of the championship or the battle for supremacy

00:59:06um but certainly makino uh will be feeling very satisfied assuming he gets to the checkered flag

00:59:12uh half a lap from now fraga's giving it one more go to try and push on otter on ots but then otter is

00:59:18also using up all the less the rest of his remaining ots and fraga is going to run out of it before kakano

00:59:24shinota does makino doesn't even need to push that button right now he's still got three and a half seconds

00:59:29on his teammate this is a bit of a fantastic opening race to the weekend and race three of 2025 it's been

00:59:36dokomo dandelion all season and for tanesuke makino this is a victory that will mean so much to him last

00:59:42year he won it by default his teammate had a throttle issue and spun it away this time tanesuke makino

00:59:48rolled up his sleeves went for the victory went gung-ho for glory and has taken it with authority out of the

00:59:55final turn tanesuke makino wins round three at motegi and it's a dominant drive second for kakano

01:00:03shinota a podium for the rookie igor fraga what a drive from all three men but shotsuboi the man behind

01:00:11is still for many people's money the championship favorite kassio hosma one last chance to get past

01:00:18the book in a jiri the jiri is absolutely adamant i'm not letting you buy sunshine i'm not going to let

01:00:23you have this give it everything you've got out of the final turn but i'll still beat you but that is

01:00:28a worrying sign for the future for tomokin a jiri he does not need to be battling with oshima what a

01:00:35fantastic race though as makino dominates his way fourth career win for makino and that does put

01:00:43dandelion now level with timugan uh both on 26 wins in their respective histories uh so that's a little

01:00:51point to watch out for as the season goes on but at the moment it's all dandelion isn't it dandelion's

01:00:56making all the running as rikuto gobi actually crosses the line 16th but i think he should have

01:01:00been higher than that um considering the timing loss at the pit stop uh let's listen to makino's radio

01:01:05so makino that's uh relief there thank you so much uh you know i'm just so glad that he had the luck

01:01:22on his side he said uh luck's on my side today so that's uh for makino he feels uh in that direction

01:01:29but iwasa on the other hand still gonna be reeling from that gut punch at the retirement it looked

01:01:35like he was running p4 it looked like he had the pace to charge this man

01:01:50oh fraga apologizing to the team for not getting second so clearly felt that was in the offing

01:01:55i mean i don't think the team would be upset at all they look delighted don't they they look

01:01:59absolutely euphoric for third yeah and that's two podiums in a in well in the space of three races

01:02:13so auto being told it's a one two and it's ah it's the first one two since i joined isn't it and yes

01:02:18it is and it's the first one two since 2012 for this team so finally the one two that they probably

01:02:24should have had last year um they get this year um but obviously it was it went down to the the

01:02:30very edge didn't it uh in in terms of the battle the last lap even uh this year makino

01:02:38clearly had it sewn up quite a bit earlier than that so he's going to be feeling good about this one

01:02:43speaking of feel good here's a comparison the way that tanesuke makino has turned things around

01:02:49in the last two years do you know who's reminding me of if we're going to use a formula one comparison

01:02:55i'm going to draw a comparison with a guy who's no stranger to success in japanese motorsport

01:03:00tanesuke makino's story has a real air of jensen button about it tried for many many years to get

01:03:07into the top frame of formula one finally got that breakthrough victory and from that moment the

01:03:13the road was just paved with gold for him he just had everything lined up he finally figured out

01:03:18how to win by mastering how to lose and now tadasuke makino is coming into his golden era this is

01:03:24absolutely the best we've ever seen from him and maybe the best we'll ever see from him

01:03:29at 2019 he debuted of course with nakajima racing it's it's taken it took him a while obviously to get

01:03:36that first win i mean uh last year at autopolis that's five years on from his debut so yeah a little

01:03:41whiff of button about that in terms of having a bit of a long wait um someone that came into this

01:03:47championship you know very highly regarded of course raced european formula three

01:03:51uh in in 2018 i think for before coming here uh sorry formula two as well forgot about that so

01:03:58european formula three then formula two got the win at monza uh before he came to japan here's

01:04:03suboi's radio

01:04:28a bit of a lengthy speech from suboi but the takeaway there was when he said campeki perfect perfect

01:04:33perfect perfect and he sort of apologized for what happened at turn one and and the race pace

01:04:39clearly very very good for that tom's car even at montegui so if he can just qualify a little bit

01:04:43higher up he is going to be in the thick of the fight with these two men potentially as soon as

01:04:48tomorrow there are hugs for now but the more they battle for victories this year the tougher it's going

01:04:54to be for the relationship to stay strong however for hiroki maraka-san wow maraka-san is living his

01:05:04absolute best life isn't he he's managed to engineer this team to the dominant force they are now five

01:05:11wins in a row now for dandelion that's five of their 26 career victories in a row yeah quite remarkable

01:05:20really uh you know uh it's it's it yeah we we've we've sung dandelion's proses so much haven't we over

01:05:27the course of the last uh 18 months or so um there's not much more to say really is there the the this

01:05:33small team based in kyoto prefecture just 25 permanent staff uh and and somehow they've they've put

01:05:40together i mean muro kassan himself as we see the driver of the day recipient yeah i'd agree with

01:05:45that i would agree with that that's that's fair play for me uh but muro kassan himself is such an

01:05:50integral part of that it's his passion his desire his desire to fight the big teams as an independent

01:05:56and don't forget dandelion doesn't compete in any other category this is it for them mugen's got

01:06:00arta honda's to run in super gt tom's has got all sorts going on outside of super formula including

01:06:06you know the business of selling road cars um dandelion is it's it's the williams really i would

01:06:12say williams 10 years ago they do a few more things now i'm sure he'll be taking a visit to

01:06:17the dandelion pits uh tomorrow morning um but uh yes but dandelion purely exists to race and win in

01:06:25super formula so you can understand how much it means to muro kassan when that happens sometimes the

01:06:33emotions are just too hard to bottle up but down there in the pits this is game on for the

01:06:39championship isn't it but the man they've all got to be terrified of is shoxi boy if you weren't going

01:06:44to give driver of the day to miguel fraga i'd have given it to show because yet again p12 on the grid

01:06:52to p4 just absolutely astonishing he literally drags everything he can out of every race he starts

01:06:59kicking and screaming his way up the grid in the most emphatic manner when we get to fuji he could

01:07:05win races by half a minute i certainly could if it's not a safety car or anything like that um this

01:07:13is uh definitely uh getting this family a uh a vip core of the dandelion garage tomorrow start crying

01:07:19start crying we can get ourselves into the panic tomorrow quick start crying it works doesn't it

01:07:25we've seen it a few times now in motorsport paddocks well it's expected you can't you can't

01:07:30not give the passes away now you can't say oh your kids tears weren't good enough you know yeah exactly

01:07:35so quick just cry just cry anyway uh dokumo dandelion one and two they're first for several seasons

01:07:43which is bad when you consider that both mackinac and otter have been winning races fairly consistently

01:07:48now since the end of 2023 take a bow sir just genuinely there doesn't seem to be anybody in the

01:07:55the world who's as good at turning a japanese race into his i can't wait for when he gets to fuji

01:08:01everyone's suddenly going to be suddenly brutally awakened by how strong this man has been under the

01:08:07radar for the last three races here's igor fraga third position thank you show that so

01:08:12she's a driver of the day i'm a little bit of a massive member of the day

01:08:15thank you thank you very much

01:08:18so i was able to stay calm and stay close to the behind of

01:08:31mackino in the first in but the pace in the second sim was not as good as i thought and it was close to being a p2 but

01:08:41but anyway to be able to fight with these guys is is a real honor and privilege and shows

01:08:49how far i've come so tomorrow i'll be giving it my own to try and go even better so good work from

01:08:55fraga he kind of looks kind of looks uh exhausted doesn't he there's uh watanabe-san the boss of uh

01:09:00honda racing corporation he'll be happy to have a honda podium lockout of course

01:09:06contrast the form we get contrast contrast the form of mugen

01:09:10by comparison to the contrast form of dandelion you know all smiles for the honda

01:09:16corporation at team dandelion one and two for them they took two points

01:09:20they took two points they took two points

01:09:21they took two points

01:09:23the gp9 iwasa out of the race

01:09:26it's baffling isn't it

01:09:27dandelion one two finish this

01:09:29it's a lot of fun

01:09:32i'm tired so it's water

01:09:35so the tires are really tough

01:09:37enough for the end but somehow i was able to hang on and uh get the one two for the team so

01:09:43so he knew that it was going to be difficult with the tire

01:09:57but tomorrow wants to make it the other way around with the one two with him ahead and he said uh

01:10:05i wanted to give the fans a bit of a show by by challenging makino when he came on the attack it

01:10:09turns one and two so um but he knew there was no chance with with the strategy so i think the the

01:10:15battle realistically lost i mean at the start really wasn't it dropping behind eagle fraga uh that was

01:10:20pretty key i think in in um in makino getting the better of the two

01:10:24dandelion drivers and now we're going to hear from the race winner

01:10:29makino tarasuke選手

01:10:30oめでとうございます

01:10:31ありがとうございます

01:10:34thank you very much says makino

01:10:38so a clean battle between

01:10:43teammates and he came out on top

01:10:46yeah i think it was always it was like it was gonna be

01:10:49like it was gonna be between the two of us

01:10:52yeah i really wanted to make it so i was gonna be far ahead

01:10:56なんだろう去年本当にあの

01:10:59不完全燃焼だったものが

01:11:02ひとまずなんか自分の中での心地になるなと思います

01:11:05like i'm feeling very

01:11:07he's bad but last year behind him when he brought the win and handed to him by otas problem

01:11:11so there was a sense of lack of satisfaction

01:11:15and there were many times that there were the team that like i can get a one two finish

01:11:19but we couldn't quite get it

01:11:21yeah i've been with this team a long time now and i really like this team

01:11:25and clearly get somewhere with this teammate though

01:11:29we're gonna hear from the boss

01:11:31so there we go muraka-san urging everybody

01:11:59i don't think he was on the same wavelength there was he

01:12:02no makino's too cool for that way too cool for that

01:12:07oh well he gave it a try anyway didn't muraka-san

01:12:10no fair play well one thing that the magic word he did say

01:12:14the ski which is kind of like the equivalent of uh

01:12:16you know liking someone like a you know a partner

01:12:19um but it didn't quite uh translate into the full part

01:12:23well i tell you what the way that things are currently going between these two

01:12:27all it takes is one miscalculation and all of a sudden the atmosphere within

01:12:32down the line could fracture but certainly for the moment

01:12:35we're enjoying the team in what could turn out to be

01:12:38its best era this is certainly looking so strong

01:12:40muraka-san can't believe his luck he always knew that makino was a great

01:12:44talent he put otta alongside him and suddenly

01:12:47makino's found his mojo this is where he's really in his prime

01:12:51and he becomes the championship leader as well

01:12:53tadesuke makino taking the win by kaku otta

01:12:57igor frago a great third position how does shotsuboi climb out of hot water

01:13:01and onto the plate fourth position ahead of niro fukizumi and seno sakaguchi

01:13:05yamashita fenestras nigeri and oshima complete the top 10. dark days at mugen

01:13:11great days for team dandelion and toyota and team toms are still knocking on the door

01:13:1711th for seita nanaka and zako sullivan behind hibiki tyra shinkoide a difficult

01:13:21race for him at least the impulse had flashes of brilliance from takaboshi and

01:13:25kobayashi and tsushimiake struggling all day long

01:13:28kazuto kotaka slumping juju noda the last finisher no finish at all for iwasa

01:13:33and a collision on the first lap for toshikyo and ren sato there's the

01:13:36professional championship standings makino leading by five points now to kaku

01:13:39otta shotsuboi dangerously close third in the standings now ahead of iwasa

01:13:45and nigiri fraga getting close to overtaking the first of the mugens in

01:13:49that list absolutely amazing not bad from the rest of the field

01:13:54another point score for kazia oshima definitely his best season for a long

01:13:58time already only three races in in the team's

01:14:01championship dandelion have clearly leapt forward 36 points now

01:14:05compared to team mugen that's the lead they've got almost

01:14:08double the tally team toms now go ahead of nakajima

01:14:12and it's kcmg tied on inging with 14 points apiece condo have nine

01:14:18and b max and dokumo rookie have put their points on the board

01:14:22but a fantastic race it really was a true classic there at

01:14:25metegui and just as maracasan pointed out

01:14:28i think he's got a point tomorrow could be even better let's look back over some of

01:14:31the best points of the race it all kick-started

01:14:34with this lightning launch for migo fraga beating otta away

01:14:37almost beating makado around the outside of turn one it all went wrong for sato

01:14:42colliding unfortunately with toshki oyu they didn't last the lap

01:14:46so nearly off on the lawson curb as it's becoming quickly known

01:14:50uh for igor fraga saved it sato and oyu out safety car deployed

01:14:55sasha fenestras barely getting away he dropped back

01:14:58the impulse battled early on with juju noda and itsusha miyaki

01:15:02good flashes of brilliance from ricka to kabayashi he really put on a good show for a debut

01:15:06at the pit stops it was always going to be tricky

01:15:09but when they finally finished off all of their hard work

01:15:13it was going to be an interesting one for tadesuke makado

01:15:16he managed to get out fractionally behind kakudoshi otta

01:15:19not that he made it easy for him on pit exit

01:15:21but with the tire advantage and the motivation and determination

01:15:25tadesuke makado gave us a great fight and a fantastic show

01:15:29wheel-to-wheel drama the whole way and once tadesuke makado had him lined up

01:15:33kaku made him work for it inches between them became millimeters

01:15:37but fortunately tadesuke makado had it all sewn up

01:15:41great racing all the way and unfortunately kaku no shinota also joined the lawson curb club

01:15:46and yumi iwasa pulling out of the race from fourth position

01:15:49a chance of a podium long goal

01:15:51shojutsu boy somehow storming his way back from p12 on the grid

01:15:55to p4 easily the danger man for this year's championship

01:15:59for now though it's tadesuke makado's story to play out the first one to for dandelion in 13 years

01:16:07absolutely amazing racing all the way and i can't wait for tomorrow as

01:16:11morocasan rightly pointed out jamie tomorrow could be even better

01:16:15yeah well we'll have the uh the no pit window there's rikuto kobayashi um debriefing with uh the two

01:16:21hoshinos kazuyoshi in the foreground kazuki to the right there there's oscar zelaya uh his engineer

01:16:27on the left um and it's going to be a bit cooler it's going to be several degrees cooler

01:16:32and there's possibility of rain in the morning i don't think it will necessarily impact

01:16:36qualifying directly judging by the the current forecast but uh it it it does make the the it

01:16:43could make it more interesting couldn't it the conditions are going to be very difficult

01:16:46different to today there could be more cloud cover uh i think we are going to see a bit of a

01:16:50shake-up still dandelion will be strong google will be hoping to bounce back of course um but i

01:16:55don't think we should expect a carbon copy of today i mean always in these double headers the second

01:16:59race tends to not be the repeat of the first one but i think especially here uh where the conditions

01:17:05are a little bit changeable at this time of year uh and it looks like that's what we're going to see

01:17:09tomorrow so the podium ceremony then here at mobility resort motegi the two and four race round

01:17:16three of 2025 and it's a very deserving top three that we could go on and on and on about for hours

01:17:22igor fraga as a rookie driver in his third race climbs the podium what a fantastic performance from

01:17:28a man who could just keep getting better and better as the season progresses tomorrow he could even fight

01:17:33for the win yeah that's going to be one to keep an eye out isn't it i mean we we talk about nakajima

01:17:41racing preferring the cold conditions so perhaps there's a chance we didn't see much of ren sato

01:17:46of course because he was eliminated at turn one by a collision with uh toshki or you but if sato can

01:17:53qualify a little bit higher in the order i think he could be a big threat as well

01:17:57kakano shinoto could have taken the victory today he won in the opening weekend at suzuka but it's this

01:18:03man tanisuke makino who gets another victory and this time he makes it two in a row round two at

01:18:10suzuka round three at motegi could he make it three in about it could be a fascinating opportunity he was

01:18:16the one to finally break kakano shinoto's winning streak he could go on his own the way things currently

01:18:22stack up moroga-san looks like christmas has come several months early he is absolutely living the life

01:18:28of riley up there on the podium as we will hear in the time-honored tradition the japanese national anthem

01:18:58it seems these days whenever a winner climbs the podium

01:19:27it's the japanese national anthem although it wasn't that long ago the last time we heard a

01:19:31different anthem liam lawson springs immediately to mind in 2023 and not long before that of course

01:19:36juliano alaci for the french national anthem we may hear a couple of different anthems this year

01:19:41maybe the brazilian for igor fraga and who knows there could be an unbelievable continuation of the

01:19:47comeback of sasha fenestras to hear the argentine anthem and he's got a massive amount of support

01:19:52to make that happen but these three absolutely unstoppable so far this weekend and they could

01:19:59well do it all over again tomorrow but this man definitely looks like he's hungry to stop

01:20:05the dandelion bandwagon yeah i'm i'm looking forward to well suboi clearly he's got amazing race pace from

01:20:15what we saw today so if he can qualify a little bit higher up the order you know p12 you know we talked

01:20:20about that at the start of the program that his worst qualifying position in years if he can just be

01:20:24even p7 or p8 he could easily be on the podium with the pace he showed today and maybe even challenging

01:20:31the the the dandelion guys uh at the very head of the field we're sort of assuming they'll be there

01:20:36or thereabouts what can kent yamash to do again we didn't see too much of that condo racing car today

01:20:41um it didn't quite pan out for yamash to a bit of a slow uh pit stop for him it seemed even though i

01:20:47don't think we saw it at the time um so that that will be another driver to look out for potentially to

01:20:54to try and break up the dandelion uh duopoly but fraga certainly is going to have taken a big

01:20:58confidence boost from this and the team's going to be in very good spirits but do watch out for

01:21:02ren sato tomorrow as well because i think he is still uh one to keep an eye on one team that's

01:21:09definitely going to have a very painful overnight sequence it's going to be team mugen isn't it

01:21:14ninth place for tomoko nigiri a retirement with a technical failure for yuma awasa while challenging

01:21:19for the podium there are some very long faces at the number 15 and 16 crews

01:21:24yeah especially nojiri i mean but iwasa it'll be one of those things of well you know

01:21:33things like that out of your control can happen but for nojiri you know he was just nowhere on pace

01:21:39so that's got to be the the real source of concern in the garage because already he's slipping behind

01:21:43in the championship battle he didn't he scored what two points today so he's already more than a race

01:21:49wins worth of points behind tadaske makino and and and that's the trouble with these doubleheader

01:21:55weekends isn't it it's it's we we don't often see complete turnarounds in terms of one race being

01:22:02you know a driver going from zero to hero overnight so he's probably got to endure tomorrow try and get

01:22:08some solid points as the the uh the rice prize makes its way to muroka san and makino a common uh

01:22:16common thing here at motegi in toksiki prefecture um so that's going to be you know it's going to be

01:22:22a difficult day i think again for nojiri the question is whether he can come back fighting

01:22:27uh adultopolis which is uh of course the the will be the fifth round of the season next month

01:22:33so the way this championship is forming up i mean obviously we're only two weekends in and we're

01:22:37only one race into this weekend but over the course of the season looking at the way that show

01:22:43tsuboi is surely going to gain ground on dandelion the million dollar question has got to be what

01:22:49kind of staying power can dandelion have if show tsuboi is going to come good will seconds and thirds to

01:22:56the tom's toyota man be good enough to keep them in the fight for the championship long term

01:23:02so depends on the qualifying points doesn't it because if you can grab uh two or three points at

01:23:07time muroka san getting the soaking that has been coming for a year now uh in terms of the one two

01:23:14eluding the team's grasp until now um but i yeah you get you would gain five points for a for a for

01:23:22over a win for second place over second place i should say but if you can combine that with the

01:23:28bonus points for qualifying then it does lessen the blow doesn't it so i think tsuboi we would tend to

01:23:34to see him come up through from lower down the grid pole position has happened but doesn't happen

01:23:40as often as a general rule so that will be important for dandelion to keep racking up those bonus points

01:23:45to keep tsuboi at bay i mean we've got two races to come at uh my life be like

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Formula 1 Academy 2025. Round 2. Saudi Arabian. Race 1

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