Nyck de Vries believes the penalty that cost him his first Super Formula points finish at Fuji is a result of a “domestic-specific” interpretation of the rules governing contact.

In his third and final stand-in appearance of the season for Team Impul, ex-Formula 1 racer de Vries finished eighth on the road, making up nine places from his grid position.

However, a five-second time penalty awarded for making contact with Kenta Yamashita exiting Turn 1 as they battled over ninth place on lap 32 of 41 meant that de Vries dropped down to 11th in the final results.

That matched his result from Saturday’s opening race, when he fell two tenths of a second shy of overhauling Kondo Racing’s Yamashita for the final point in 10th.

While satisfied with his performance, de Vries pointed out the difference between his version of events in his battle with Yamashita and those of the stewards, and feels the move would have been deemed legal in categories outside of Japan.

“I would call the [penalty] decision very domestic-specific, made by people who are watching 100 metres away from the corner, which is different from my view,” said de Vries.

“If you watch the footage, it’s clear that at the apex I am almost half a car length in front of [Yamashita]. I am on the normal line, so I am accelerating at the optimum point, so I have no chance to back out because I need to use all the track.

Nyck de Vries, ITOCHU ENEX TEAM IMPUL

Photo by: Masahide Kamio

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“He accelerates to try and recover the missed ground, but he is going for a gap that isn’t there. I am at maximum lock, and he is coming from the outside and hits me.

“I just feel bad for the team because they’ve had a tough season and they deserve it.”

De Vries added that hopes Super Formula will adopt a more international approach to the rules that govern wheel-to-wheel combat in future.

“People have asked me what I think about Super Formula and how it can become even more relevant to Formula 2 and Formula 1, and I praise the series, because the cars are great and the racing is great,” he said.

“But this kind of rule that has nothing to do with international racing doesn’t make sense to me.”

De Vries’ recovery into the points was all the more remarkable as he was caught up in a second-lap incident involving Iori Kimura and Atsushi Miyake at Turn 10.

That forced the Dutch driver into the pits to replace his front wing, although the resulting safety car meant he was able to restart at the tail of the field.

Nyck de Vries, ITOCHU ENEX TEAM IMPUL

Photo by: Masahide Kamio

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A further safety car period was called when Yuji Kunimoto tapped Kazuya Oshima into a spin at Turn 1 then allowed de Vries to pit under caution and make up further places.

“Our pace was very good in that first stint,” reflected de Vries. “[After the contact] we were overtaking a car almost every lap, so we were making ground anyway, and then the second safety car played into our hands. 

“Actually on the first lap, I was already ahead of [Ayumu] Iwasa. Most of the ground I lost with the front wing change, I already made up before the second pitstop, because I came out behind Kamui [Kobayashi] and Iwasa was just ahead of him.”

Toyota junior Hibiki Taira will take over the #19 Impul car, which was driven earlier in the year by Formula 2 champion Theo Pourchaire and Lexus IMSA regular Ben Barnicoat, for next month’s season finale at Suzuka.

Taira took the car’s only points finish of the year so far on Super Formula’s previous visit to Fuji in July, when he finished ninth.

Max Verstappen says he was baffled by the rumours swirling over the summer on Red Bull’s alleged use of asymmetric braking, and addressed rival Formula 1 teams trying to stir up trouble.

After a dominant start to 2024, Red Bull’s fortunes took a turn for the worse around May’s Miami Grand Prix, when McLaren brought a major upgrade package that revamped its MCL38 into a race-winning car, while Red Bull says it went down a wrong development path with its RB20.

Red Bull initially struggled to respond to its downturn in competitiveness, with its last win now dating back to Verstappen’s triumph in June’s Spanish Grand Prix, and has only just started turning the corner on its car’s handling issues in recent races.

Speculation over the source of Red Bull’s form dip mounted in the summer when the FIA tightened up its regulations around asymmetric braking, effectively closing a loophole for the 2026 regulations and retroactively applying the new phrasing to this year’s rulebook.

The FIA further confirmed the rule change had not been prompted by a current team using a system that the new wording outlawed, but that didn’t stop speculation from suggesting it was Red Bull that had been using a solution that it then had to remove from the RB20.

Speaking exclusively to Motorsport.com, Verstappen reflected on the whole episode, and the flak his world championship-winning team received, with some amusement. “People always come up with different stuff,” he said. “I find it really bizarre how they come up with some of these things, but it is what it is. It’s part of the game, but I usually just let it go.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Lionel Ng / Motorsport Images

“I’ve been in F1 for 10 years now and I’m not wasting time on all those stories. I mean, I barely read anything about F1 anyway. Of course, sometimes I see something or someone else tells me: “Did you see what this and that person said?’ But I always say people can think what they want, I’m not going to waste my energy on that. So, I don’t really care about what other people say.”

Red Bull also caught flak from rival teams over its form dip and its off-track power struggles, which prompted McLaren CEO Zak Brown to say that Red Bull had been “destabilised”. He later described the team as a “pretty toxic” environment.

“People that say all sorts of stuff should just focus on their own team,” Verstappen replied when the subject was brought up. “That’s nothing specifically against Zak Brown, by the way, it applies to everyone. People just need to focus on themselves, and that’s what I’m doing as well.”

The Red Bull – McLaren rivalry has now also ignited on track, with McLaren overtaking Red Bull in the constructors’ championship and Lando Norris challenging Verstappen for the drivers’ title, including a collision between the pair in Austria. But the Dutchman doesn’t think things will get as tense as they were during a fraught 2021 title clash with Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes.

“Yes, because right now we still have four teams at the front, while back then you just had the same two people up front,” he explained. “Of course, 2021 was my first world championship, so that was very different already. I think I’m a bit more relaxed about it now.

“Of course, I want to win and of course, I’m going to do my best to defend that [52-point] lead. But the feeling is very different from 2021.”

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Sho Tsuboi made it a double Super Formula victory at Fuji on Sunday to grab the championship lead heading into the final weekend of the season next month at Suzuka.

TOM’S man Tsuboi converted his first pole of the year into another win at Fuji, giving himself a perfect record at the Toyota-owned venue in 2024 and becoming the first driver to win two races in a single weekend since Andre Lotterer in 2011.

Nirei Fukuzumi proved Tsuboi’s nearest challenger in an incident-strewn race that featured no fewer than three safety car periods, finishing second for KCMG, while Tadasuke Makino cemented second in the standings in third place.

The first caution period came on just the second lap of 41 as Iori Kimura tipped Atsushi Miyake into a spin at the Turn 10 right-hander, with Nyck de Vries also getting caught up in the melee and having to pit for a fresh front wing.

Tsuboi maintained the lead through to the second safety car period, triggered when Kazuya Oshima was sent into a spin by Yuji Kunimoto at Turn 1.

That came not long after the pit window opened and several frontrunners, including Fukuzumi, had come into the pits for their mandatory stops.

But with Tsuboi able to complete his in-lap at virtually unabated pace, he maintained the lead ahead of Fukuzumi, while Ren Sato beat Makino out of the pits to move into third.

After the restart on lap 17, Tsuboi began to eke away from Fukuzumi, but the KCMG driver kept the leader in his sights and was only a matter of tenths behind when the safety car made its final appearance on lap 32.

That followed a collision between Sena Sakaguchi and Naoki Yamamoto exiting Turn 2, which saw the front of Yamamoto’s Nakajima Racing car get airborne as he rode up on the back of Sakaguchi’s Inging machine.

Yamamoto was seen being stretchered into an ambulance and was taken to the medical centre for checks.

Tomoki Nojiri, TEAM MUGEN

Photo by: Masahide Kamio

The race resumed with just three laps left with Tsuboi heading home Fukuzumi by 1.3 seconds, while Makino was able to wrest third back off Ren Sato prior to the final safety car period.

That means he heads to next month’s Suzuka finale trailing Tsuboi by 14.5 points, with 46 on offer across the double-header weekend.

Sato still claimed his best finish of the year for Nakajima Racing in fourth, ahead of Kakunoshin Ota, who recovered well from 14th on the grid in the second Dandelion car.

Kamui Kobayashi was sixth in the second KCMG car after a late pass on Red Bull junior Ayumu Iwasa, the Mugen driver having started down in 12th after his best lap in qualifying was taken away for a track limits breach.

After his early dramas, de Vries recovered to finish eighth in his final outing for Team Impul, passing a fading Tomoki Nojiri (Mugen) just prior to the final caution period, while Kenta Yamashita claimed the final point for Kondo Racing in 10th

Nojiri finds himself 18.5 points down on Tsuboi after losing six places from his grid position.

Post-race Sato was handed a 10-second penalty for making contact at Turn 1 with Makino as he exited the pits, dropping him out of the points to 15th place.

It means Ota moves up to fourth ahead of Kobayashi and Iwasa.

De Vries was also stripped of his points finish for contact with Yamashita, with a five-second penalty dropping the Dutchman down to 11th.

As a result, Nojiri jumps two places to seventh ahead of Yamashita, while Iori Kimura and Toshiki Oyu are promoted into the final points positions.

Two extra points for Nojiri means he goes to the Suzuka finale 16.5 points behind Tsuboi.

Super Formula Fuji – Race 2 results (before penalties):

The WRC2 title fight could be set for another twist following confirmation that a previously rejected protest from Oliver Solberg’s Toksport Skoda team will be reheard by Rally Chile stewards.

A petition led by FIA road sport director Andrew Wheatley has resulted in the case regarding a notional time being awarded to Solberg’s title rival and Rally Chile WRC2 winner Yohan Rossel to be reviewed.

Solberg’s Toksport Skoda team lodged a protest asking the stewards to re-evaluate a notional time awarded to Rossel that helped the Citroen driver to victory. Rossel vaulted from third to WRC2 class lead when stewards deemed Solberg had hindered the Frenchman during stage 11 and subsequently knocked 40s off his stage time.

Solberg was leading the class in the test when he suffered a puncture which cost the Swede 1m30s to change a wheel. Solberg rejoined the stage ahead of Rossel who felt he had been held up by the Skoda driver while passing through the stage affected by thick fog.

The incident is likely to play a part in determining the outcome WRC2 title as Solberg could have secured the championship with a victory in Chile.

Stewards initially deemed the protest inadmissible “because under the FIA International Sporting Code, it is not permissible for the Stewards to review/re-hear their decisions through a protest.”

However, a subsequent stewards report released on Friday states that “significant and relevant new element which was unavailable to the parties seeking the review at the time of the decision concerned.”

Oliver Solberg, Elliott Edmondson, Toksport WRT Skoda Fabia Evo Rally2

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

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The case will be re-opened and reviewed at a date yet to be announced.

“The Stewards examined video evidence and GPS tracking data provided by the FIA, which was information that was not in the possession of the Clerk of the Course, nor of the Stewards, at the time of the decision was made. The Stewards consider this to be new information,” read the stewards report.

“The FIA explained the relevance of the videos and the GPS tracking data and indicated that if this information had been available at the time the request from the Competitor of Car No. 21 for a new time was received, then a different representation would have been made to the Stewards in relation to the Competitor’s request on SS11 (Lota 2). The Stewards consider the FIA’s submission to be significant and relevant.

“Having considered the matter extensively, the Stewards decide to re-examine their decision in accordance with Article 14.1.1 of the 2024 FIA International Sporting Code and wish to hear from the parties concerned, namely the Competitor of Car No. 21 and a representative of the FIA, at a time and place to be determined thereafter.”

Solberg currently leads the WRC2 championship standings by 12 points over Rossel, but will now have to rely on results elsewhere to keep his title hopes alive having completed his seven points-scoring events.

Rossel and Sami Pajari (15 points adrift of Solberg) remain in title contention with the pair set to complete their final rounds at the Central European Rally and Rally Japan respectively.

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