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Yuki Sano wins 2025 season opener as a penalty hits rival
Yuki Sano（Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC SFL）
After two-day practice sessions the Japanese Super Formula Lights championship had two qualifyings and one race on Saturday.
The season-opening Suzuka event would be competed by 13 cars as TOM’S announced Seita Nonaka (#36 PONOS Racing TOM’S TGR-DC SFL car) would miss it due to his participation in the jointly held Super Formula.
The qualifying for Rd 1 began at 8:30am under cloudy skies, and it was a pair of SFL rookies who secured the front row for the first race.
Improving his times at the end of the 10-minute attacks Yuki Sano driving Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC SFL clinched pole position with 1m51.230 from Yuto Nomura (in HFDP WITH B-MAX RACING), who had been second fastest in the fourth practice session.
Rikuto Kobayashi struggled with the renovated Suzuka track, but managed to put his Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC SFL in the third on the grid. Souta Arao (DELiGHTWORKS) was pushed up to fourth after the fourth fastest Zach David (B-MAX RACING 324)’s best time was declared invalid due to his off-the-track running after the qualifying.
Start of Round.1■A tense lead battle on the first lap
After the Super Formula’s qualifying and a pit walk, the first race finally got underway. As the lights went out at 0:30pm after the formation lap the top three nailed the start heading into the first corner in the grid order, while Arao, Kaylen Frederick (Pilot ONE Racing with B-MAX) and Reimei Ito (LMcorsa OTG 320) bogged down in fourth, fifth and eighth respectively, and were immediately jumped by Yusuke Mitsui (DELiGHTWORKS) as he succeeded in his favourite getaway. David and Kazuhisa Urabe (B-MAX RACING 324) followed Mitsui.
With all the cars closely running with one another on the opening lap a lead battle between Sano and Nomura was heated. Nomura went side-by-side through Hitachi Astemo chicane and on the run towards Turn one on lap two overtook the TOM’S driver.
Sano was briefly caught up by Kobayashi, but held off his team-mate before closing in on Nomura. The halfway stage saw a lead battle between Nomura and Sano with Kobayashi following them a little back
Yuto Nomura（HFDP WITH B-MAX RACING）
■Nomura hit with an unexpected penalty
Just when another tense lead battle looked to unfold Nomura and Frederick in tenth each were hit with an unexpected 5-second time penalty for jump start.
Nomura now had to open up his lead to more than five seconds to win, but it was just 2.672secs when he came into the final lap, and then 2.861secs at the flag. As a result, Sano claimed victory in the 2025 season opener with lights-to-flag performance on his SFL debut. Nomura secured second place as he crossed the line with a sizeable 13.086secs advantage over the third finisher Kobayashi.
Heated scraps were also seen among mid-fielders, with Mitsui and David fighting over fourth and Arao heading Urabe and Tosei Moriyama (JMS RACING TEAM) in a battle over sixth.
The scrap over fourth was won by Mitsui after he overtook David at 130R on lap 12. Arao slightly went off the track at Hitachi Astemo chicane on lap 14, allowing Urabe to pass him for sixth place finish.
David, Mitsui and Urabe scored their first SFL points by finishing fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.
In the master class, Yasuhiro Shimizu (GNSY RACING) pulled clear from pole position to take his first victory of the season.
