Ugo Ugochukwu tops Suzuka Super Formula test as Jack Doohan crashes three times

Ex-McLaren Formula 1 junior Ugo Ugochukwu topped Super Formula’s post-season test at Suzuka by setting the fastest time of the final day of running and overall.

Ugochukwu, driving the #1 TOM’S Dallara-Toyota normally piloted by Sho Tsuboi, took advantage of near-perfect conditions in the two rookies-only sessions on Friday to set the fastest time of the week, a 1m36.682s, late in the afternoon.

That put him 0.473s up on his fellow rookies, and completed a clean sweep of the day for the American driver, who had also topped the morning session.

Ugochukwu's best lap was enough to eclipse Igor Fraga’s benchmark time of 1m37.158s set in the afternoon session on the opening day of the test.

Clear skies on Friday afternoon combined with cold temperatures and a very strong tailwind along the Japanese Grand Prix venue’s main straight were ideal for setting fast lap times, with the top three rookies all breaching the overall top 10.

Behind Fraga, Nirei Fukuzumi topped Thursday’s second day of track action with his new team Rookie Racing with a 1m37.221s, good for third overall ahead of Ren Sato (Nakajima Racing) and Tadasuke Makino (Dandelion Racing).

Japanese F4 champion and Toyota junior Tokiya Suzuki, who was handed an additional day of running for KCMG following Kalle Rovanpera’s withdrawal due to illness, was second-fastest on Friday to place an impressive sixth overall.

Another Toyota junior, Rikuto Kobayashi, was third-fastest on Friday to complete the overall top 10 for TGM Grand Prix behind Rovanpera, newly-crowned champion Ayumu Iwasa (Team Mugen) and Kakunoshin Ohta (Dandelion).

Formula Regional European champion Freddie Slater, driving the second of the TOM’S cars, was fourth of the rookies, 0.618s behind Ugochukwu and 11th overall.

Williams F1 junior Luke Browning completed the top five on Friday for Kondo Racing, putting him 13th overall, in his second day at the wheel of Super Formula machinery.

Browning’s Kondo team-mate Jack Doohan endured a difficult three days of testing, marked by crashes at Degner Curve on each of the three days that limited his running.

The Australian driver recovered from his last off, which occurred in the morning session, to join the action for the final 30 minutes of the day and record a best time of 1m38.350s, which put him ninth of the 14 rookies driving on Friday and 26th overall.

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Zak O’Sullivan was an encouraging 10th on Thursday (17th overall) for Team Impul, which will slim down to a single car next year with the Briton as the driver.

Charlie Wurz, son of ex-F1 driver Alex, was 27th overall and 10th on Friday for the newly-relaunched Toyota-powered Team Goh outfit.

That put him one place ahead of Nobuharu Matsushita, representing the other new-for-2026 team, Delightworks Racing, which uses Honda power.

Until Friday, lap times at Suzuka were considerably slower than last year’s post-season test, which was put down to the introduction of a new E10 ethanol blend fuel that is set to be raced next year, and a tighter fuel flow restrictor that has cut fuel flow from 90 to 88kg/h.

The benchmark time in last year’s test, a 1m35.597s set by Makino, was more than 1.2s up on Ugochukwu's best effort across the three days of running.

Testing for the 2026 Super Formula campaign resumes at Suzuka on 25-26 February.

Driver

Session 1

Session 2

Session 3

Session 4

Session 5

Session 6

Ugochukwu

1'37.770

1'36.862

Fraga

1'37.429

1'37.158

1'38.650

1'37.358

Fukuzumi

1'37.950

1'37.566

1'37.783

1'37.221

Sato

1'37.849

1'37.318

1'37.712

1'37.576

Makino

1'37.437

1'37.353

1'37.441

1'37.319

Suzuki

1'43.660

1'40.827

1'38.537

1'37.335

Yamashita

1'38.043

1'37.342

1'38.011

1'37.514

Iwasa

1'38.887

1'38.693

1'37.362

Ohta

1'37.765

1'37.705

1'38.544

1'37.381

R. Kobayashi

1'39.520

1'38.401

1'38.629

1'38.807

1'39.572

1'37.430

Slater

1'39.883

1'37.480

Tsuboi

1'38.343

1'37.513

1'37.640

1'37.617

Browning

1'39.645

1'38.003

1'38.003

1'37.523

Okusa

1'39.980

1'37.627

Sakaguchi

1'38.112

1'37.934

1'37.701

1'37.956

Arao

1'39.251

1'38.775

1'38.481

1'37.791

O'Sullivan

1'38.190

1'37.959

1'38.117

1'37.823

Fenestraz

1'39.276

1'38.505

1'38.192

1'37.911

1'38.722

1'38.017

1'38.156

1'38.091

Nojiri

1'38.056

1'40.421

1'38.445

1'38.184

Urabe

1'40.006

1'38.065

K. Kobayashi

1'38.439

1'38.107

Koide

1'38.178

1'38.175

Nomura

1'38.405

1'38.177

1'39.019

1'38.640

Kunimoto

1'38.606

1'38.224

Doohan

1'41.581

1'39.683

1'39.189

1'39.112

1'39.378

1'38.350

Wurz

1'39.881

1'40.364

1'39.638

1'39.377

1'38.588

Matsushita

1'39.710

1'39.712

1'39.808

1'38.742

David

1'38.783

1'38.946

Juju

1'39.085

1'40.539

1'39.077

1'39.299

Koyama

1'41.958

1'39.141

Natori

1'40.013

1'39.469

Sasahara

1'39.615

Umegaki

1'40.899

1'40.219

Rovanpera

1'44.602

no time

Shimizu

no time

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