Super Formula Fuji: Igor Fraga wins while Kakunoshin Ohta closes on title

Igor Fraga scored his first full-length Super Formula victory on Saturday at Fuji, as Kakunoshin Ohta took another step towards an early coronation with second place.

From pole, Nakajima Racing driver Fraga was more or less untroubled at the head of the field for the entire 41-lap race, only losing the advantage during the pit cycle.

It marks the Brazilian’s third career win, but both of his previous successes came in reduced-length replacement races, including earlier this year at Fuji.

Ohta meanwhile extended his championship lead to 48 points, with Fraga now his nearest rival in the standings, and has the chance to clinch the title with two races to spare in Sunday’s Fuji finale.

Should the Dandelion Racing driver maintain a margin of at least 46 points over Fraga and his other title rivals, he will clinch the championship without having to wait for the final double-header weekend at Suzuka in late November.

While Ohta spent almost the entire race following in the wheel tracks of Fraga, there was a moment of drama in the closing laps as a sudden steering issue caused him to lose time and brought Team Impul’s Zak O’Sullivan into the fight for second.

O’Sullivan had fought his way from sixth on the grid, best of the Toyota-powered cars, up to fourth after early passes on Tomoki Nojiri and Yuto Nomura.

The Briton then cleared Ayumu Iwasa for third on lap 12, and while he was undercut by Iwasa in the pit stop phase, O’Sullivan was able to muscle his way back ahead of the Team Mugen driver at the start of lap 26.

Kakunoshin Ohta, DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING

O’Sullivan then chipped away at Ohta’s cushion in the fight for second, suddenly gaining ground on the penultimate lap, but couldn’t force a way by on the last lap.

Iwasa finished fourth in a further blow to his title defence, while Sho Tsuboi (TOM’S) came out on top in a fierce duel with Nirei Fukuzumi (Rookie Racing) to complete the top five.

Nobuharu Matsushita was seventh in an impressive run for the new-for-2026 Delightworks Racing squad, which hadn’t scored points since the Suzuka round in May.

Toshiki Oyu was eighth for Inging, while TGM Grand Prix duo Rikuto Kobayashi and Kamui Kobayashi – the latter in his first race as a 40-year-old – completed the scorers.

Williams Formula 1 reserve driver Luke Browning (Kondo Racing) could do no more than 15th after struggling to make significant progress from his grid slot of 16th.

Nojiri suffered another disappointing race in the second of the Mugen cars, fading to 16th, while Nomura, who qualified third for B-Max Racing, retired after a second trip to the pits.

Another star of qualifying was Super Formula rookie Kazuhisa Urabe, who was drafted in at the last moment to replace Sena Sakaguchi when the Inging driver suffered an eye injury.

Urabe stunned by making it through to Q2 at his first attempt, qualifying 11th, but had a harder time in the race, finishing 21st.

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

- The Motorsport.com Team