Motegi Super Formula: Palou scores second straight pole

Nakajima Racing’s Alex Palou clinched his second consecutive pole position in Super Formula after topping a closely-fought qualifying session at Motegi.

The ex-GP3 and European F3 racer needed only a single flying lap in Q3, but that was good enough to break the circuit’s previous lap record and move him to the top of the timesheets.

His time of 1m31.442s remained unbeaten after the remaining seven drivers completed their respective runs, making him the only driver to score two pole positions in 2019.

Friday and Q1 pacesetter Ryo Hirakawa qualified 0.199s behind Palou for Impul, with Nirei Fukuzumi of Dandelion Racing finishing another tenth adrift after topping Q2.

  • Watch’s this Sunday’s Super Formula race at Motegi live on Motorsport.tv from 5:00am GMT.

Red Bull junior Lucas Auer continued his strong run of qualifying performances on his return to single-seaters, the B-Max by Motopark driver ending up 0.362s off the pace in fourth.

Two-time Super Formula champion Hiroaki Ishiura (Inging) secured his best result of the season in fifth, ahead of the lead Mugen entry of Tomoki Nojiri.

Kamui Kobayashi was unable to repeat his Q2 lap that put him second in the classification, the KCMG driver eventually qualifying seventh on the grid with a time of 1m32.040s.

Championship leader Naoki Yamamoto (Dandelion) endured a difficult session and could do no better than eighth, but he crucially qualified four places ahead of his chief title rival Nick Cassidy (TOM’S).

Cassidy’s teammate Kazuki Nakajima and Red Bull junior Patricio O’Ward were both knocked out in Q1, a session which mandates all drivers to run on medium tyres.

Nakajima was 16th fastest in Q1, while Mugen driver O’Ward will start his second Super Formula race from 18th on the grid.

Session results:

Cla#DriverTeamTimeGap
164 Alex PalouTCS Nakajima Racing 1’31.442  
220 Ryo HirakawaTeam Impul 1’31.641 0.199
35 Nirei FukuzumiDoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing 1’31.764 0.322
450 Lucas AuerB-MAX with Motopark 1’31.804 0.362
538 Hiroaki IshiuraJMS P.mu/cerumo-INGING 1’31.931 0.489
616 Tomoki NojiriTeam Mugen 1’31.942 0.50
718 Kamui Kobayashicarrozzeria Team KCMG 1’32.040 0.598
81 Naoki YamamotoDoCoMo Team Dandelion Racing 1’32.049 0.607
919 Yuhi SekiguchiTeam Impul 1’32.399 0.957
1039 Sho TsuboiJMS P.mu/cerumo-INGING 1’32.793 1.351
1151 Harrison NeweyB-MAX with Motopark 1’32.824 1.382
1237 Nick CassidyVantelin Team TOM’S 1’32.856 1.414
133 Kenta YamashitaKondo Racing 1’33.807 2.365
1465 Tadasuke MakinoTCS Nakajima Racing 1’33.820 2.378
154 Yuji KunimotoKondo Racing 1’34.003 2.561
1636 Kazuki NakajimaVantelin Team TOM’S 1’34.036 2.594
178 Kazuya OshimaUOMO Sunoco Team LeMans 1’34.086 2.644
1815 Patricio O’WardTeam Mugen 1’34.361 2.919
197 Artem MarkelovUOMO Sunoco Team LeMans 1’34.386 2.944
2017 Koudai TsukakoshiReal Racing 1’34.765 3.323

Source: Read Full Article