Winners and losers from Super Formula's Motegi double-header
A look at who was up and who was down in last weekend's third and fourth rounds of the Super Formula season at Mobility Resort Motegi... (Photos: JRP)
WINNER: Igor Fraga
He was in the winners’ column last month, and a podium finish in Saturday’s opening race leaves me no choice but to nominate Fraga for a second weekend in a row!
For all of the Brazilian’s speed at Suzuka, there was no guarantee that was going to translate into similar performance at a completely different track, that he had never driven in a Super Formula car, and in significantly warmer conditions than the opener. And yet, a magnificent qualifying performance on Saturday morning put Fraga third on the grid, making him the nearest rival to the two Dandelion Racing drivers, and after a great start put him second in the first stint, he ultimately found himself back where he started after being undercut by Kakunoshin Ohta.
Granted, Fraga’s run to ninth on Sunday was less impressive, but he had still done well to qualify sixth, well ahead of teammate Ren Sato, and was up to a net fourth before bleeding places to Kazuya Oshima, Toshiki Oyu and Seita Nonaka after the restart. Asked about the reason for his struggles, Fraga said: “I think we went too aggressive on the ride height and we couldn’t get enough aero. It also took a little bit of time for the tyre pressure to come up and ‘lift’ the car to create the right airflow. The fact I took life out of my tyres defending positions also made me quite slow, I think.”
It was a typically forthright and detailed explanation from a driver who was almost subdued in his reaction to getting on the podium in only his third Super Formula race the day previous. Equally, he didn’t show any particular disappointment of returning to reality on Sunday. You could say that makes him the Oscar Piastri of the Japanese series — calm, level-headed and focused. But considering Piastri is now leading the Formula 1 title race, those are traits that could serve Fraga very well too…
