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Yusuke Mitsui wins 2026 season opener with lights-to-flag victory
Yusuke Mitsui（DELiGHTWORKS）Japanese Super Formula Lights championship’s 2026 season opening event got underway on Saturday at Fuji Speedway after two-day practice sessions.
The rain had let up during the night, and qualifying for Rd 1 started at 10:05am under clear spring weather.
With each driver spending three or four laps warming up before beginning their attacks, Yusuke Mitsui in DELiGHTWORKS, in his second year of SFL, secured his first pole position with a time of 1m32.383.
Having topped the times in three FPs Kiyoshi Umegaki (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC SFL) qualified second with his best time of 1m32.500.
Despite posting third fastest time Tokiya Suzuki (Mobility Chukyo TOM’S TGR-DC SFL) was not classified for taking to the run-off area. This promoted Evan Giltaire (ART Grand Prix with B-MAX) to third and Urabe Kazuhisa (DELiGHTWORKS) to fourth.
Start of Round.1■Fierce battles break out early on
As the lights went out at 2:20pm under fine weather Mitsui got the holeshot, followed by Umegaki and Urabe.
Giltaire slightly went off the track at TGR where fierce battles were fought, allowing Kotaro Shimbara (HFDP WITH B-MAX RACING) to move up to fourth.
On lap two a gap between Mitsui and Umegaki suddenly narrowed, with Urabe, Shimbara, Giltaire and Rintaro Sato (B-MAX ENGINEERING 324) following a little behind.
Suzuki turned in a strong recovery drive from the back of the field to move up to eighth.
The early stages saw close battles fought by a pack of Urabe, Shimbara, Giltaire and Sato over third spot, and TOM’S trio of Akshay Bohra, Suzuki and Oscar Wurz over seventh spot.
On lap 10 Urabe lost his third position that he had held since the opening lap to Giltaire who had passed Shimbara, allowing the Frenchman to pull away.
As soon as Suzuki caught up with the pack of Urabe, Shimbara and Sato he passed Sato, and on lap 12 he passed Shimbara as well.
Suzuki maintained his momentum until the closing stages as he overtook Urabe on lap 17 to move up to fourth, only for the position to be snatched back by Urabe at the final turn and then taken by Shimbara on lap 18.
Yusuke Mitsui（DELiGHTWORKS）■Ken Alex holds on for master class win
Meanwhile, a close top scrap between Mitsui and Umegaki that continued throughout the race was finally decided when Mitsui held on for his maiden SFL win, bringing first victory to DELiGHTWORKS RACING.
Giltaire placed third after enjoying a lonely race in the closing stages.
The tense fight over fourth was narrowed down to two when Suzuki sustained damage on his front in a contact at Panasonic and dropping back, and was ultimately won by Urabe as he retook the spot from Shimbara.
Shimbara finished fifth on the road but was given a post-race 30secs time penalty for breach of the fuel rules, that demoted him to 10th.
Fifth went to Wurz, and sixth went to Sato.
In master class Ken Alex (BUZZ RACING) stayed focused throughout the entire 21 laps to fend off a closely tailing Nobuhiro Imada (JMS RACING TEAM) for lights-to-flag victory.
DRAGON (B-MAX ENGINEERING 324) won a close battle to finish third.
KEN ALEX（BUZZ RACING）
