Toyota driver Nirei Fukuzumi set the quickest time throughout two days of Tremendous Formulation pre-season testing at Suzuka this week.
Fukuzumi, who has switched to Rookie Racing for the 2026 marketing campaign after two seasons at KCMG, set the benchmark time of 1m36.290s within the second afternoon on Thursday in dry situations.
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Second-fastest was Nakajima Racing’s Igor Fraga, 0.055s behind, whereas Fraga’s team-mate Ren Sato accomplished the highest three, additionally inside a tenth of Fukuzumi.
The opening day of testing at Suzuka was held on a moist observe, and was memorable principally for a terrifying airborne crash for Kondo Racing’s Luke Browning at 130R.
Williams Formulation 1 reserve driver Browning appeared to aquaplane on the quick left-hander amid worsening rain, spinning his Toyota-powered machine earlier than digging into the moist gravel, hitting the sponge obstacles and bouncing over the armco.
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The automotive got here to relaxation the other way up, that means marshals wanted to assist the Briton get out of the automotive, however he was miraculously unhurt within the crash.
Kondo’s mechanics labored till the early hours of the morning to restore the broken automotive in time for Browning to participate within the first session on Thursday.
Luke Browning, REALIZE KONDO RACING
Luke Browning, REALIZE KONDO RACING
The F2 graduate went on to set the 18th quickest time of the afternoon session and of the take a look at total, 1.075s behind Fukuzumi.
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Browning was not the one driver to be caught out within the poor situations, as Fraga suffered a crash of his personal at Spoon, whereas Sato, Kamui Kobayashi (TGM Grand Prix), and Zak O’Sullivan (Group Impul) additionally suffered incidents on the opening day of motion.
Finishing the highest 5 total for the take a look at had been defending champion Ayumu Iwasa (Group Mugen) and sequence returnee Nobuharu Matsushita, who’s driving for the likewise Honda-powered Delightworks Racing workforce this yr.
Quickest of the rookies was B-Max Racing’s Yuto Nomura in seventeenth total.
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Final-minute signing Roman Stanek was third-fastest of the rookies and twentieth total in his first Tremendous Formulation take a look at for the brand new Kondo-run Buzz MK workforce.
Kalle Rovanpera ended up twenty fourth and slowest as he returned to Tremendous Formulation motion after dropping out of his take a look at debut final December as a consequence of sickness.
The Finnish driver set a greatest time of 1m38.712s on the wheel of his Pink Bull-backed KCMG automotive, which left him 2.422s off the tempo, albeit the two-time World Rally champion improved by over one second from the morning.
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Tremendous Formulation’s opening double-header weekend might be held at Motegi on April 4-5.
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