Pierre Gasly will not be able to win the Japanese Super Formula championship this weekend despite having missed the United States Grand Prix in order to take part in it.
Both of this weekend’s races on Saturday and Sunday at Suzuka have been cancelled due to the threat from a typhoon. The Super Formula championship has announced the round will not be rescheduled, cutting this year’s championship from nine races to seven.
Hiroaki Ishiura, who arrived at the final weekend half a point ahead of Gasly, has therefore won this year’s championship by default. It’s the second time the 36-year-old has taken the title.
Gasly had closed on Ishiura in the points standings having taken two wins and a second place in the last three events. He made his Formula One debut since the last round but missed this weekend’s F1 race in Austin so he return to Japan in the hope of clinching the title.
Gasly went off during the qualifying session for the two races, which was disrupted by heavy rain. Andre Lotterer and Jann Mardenborough took pole position for the races before they were cancelled.
Brendon Hartley has taken Gasly’s place at Toro Rosso for this weekend’s race.
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Mashiat (@mashiat)
21st October 2017, 11:56
Gasly must be kicking himself.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
21st October 2017, 12:05
@mashiat He said he wanted to do the F1 race. He might be kicking someone else…
Ju88sy (@)
21st October 2017, 13:19
@keithcollantine @mashiat I’m sure it was Honda who pushed for Gasly to run the final weekend. An early taste of Honda derived disappointment, ‘character building’ preparation for 2018!
Mashiat (@mashiat)
21st October 2017, 14:25
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/honda-gasly-austin-race-super-formula-963248/ Honda wanted (supposedly) for Gasly to race in F1. I reckon it was Helmut Marko’s idea so he could get another driver in the car to evaluate for the 2018 Toro Rosso seat.
Ju88sy (@)
21st October 2017, 19:27
@mashiat Thanks, missed that.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
21st October 2017, 19:11
Malaysia was above expectation, Suzuka was disappointing. I like that STR is trialling Hartley.
Ian Parker
21st October 2017, 17:09
New motto … “Were it not for the BAD, he would have NO luck at-all.”
Ed Pimentel
21st October 2017, 12:00
Why isn’t it rescheduled? It’s as if the organization does not want a foreigner to win…
F Truth (@)
21st October 2017, 12:19
Super Formula used to produce some really nice looking cars. I guess the 2009 era F1 regs had an effect on motorsport designs to some degree all over. Ugh
Feel sorry for Gasley but its not like it was guaranteed he would beat the other guy so the season has still been decided on merit at the end of it all.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
21st October 2017, 14:24
@offdutyrockstar
You might be interested to see the design for the 2019 Super Formula car. Looks a bit better:
http://classic.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/132535
bosyber (@bosyber)
21st October 2017, 16:49
I have to say @eurobrun, it looks a bit busy from the top (and the somewhat silly f1 derived ‘fast angles’ to the wings), but not bad, for sure :)
F Truth (@)
22nd October 2017, 11:45
@eurobrun looks a bit better! Difficult to tell from that overhead
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
21st October 2017, 13:36
What a joke.
Those races should have been rescheduled. Decidedly Honda’s fate is to loose everything as for now. They had a good shot at it and it would have sweetened their situation.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
21st October 2017, 13:41
Why don’t they reschedule it? after such a short calendar, my first guess is that they have plenty of spare time to just delay the race instead of cancelling them.
Jere (@jerejj)
21st October 2017, 13:54
Captain Hindsight: ‘He should’ve gone to Austin after all as SF has more or less been just a stop-gap solution for him anyway.’ – Yes, hindsight is a wonderful thing, but at the same time, not everything can be foreseen, so at the time of making the final decision regarding which one to choose, they couldn’t really have seen something like this coming.
Baron (@baron)
21st October 2017, 15:12
It was right for him to try & clinch the SF title and surely he could not help the rotten luck that prevented him from taking part. You shouldn’t walk away from uncompleted projects just because something better came along especially so close to the finishing line. Winning the title wasn’t a given, and he wasn’t even in the top three qualifiers, so perhaps his heart wasn’t in it. Either way, it’s one chapter now closed and hopefully another one opening if Brendon doesn’t steal ‘his’ seat, but who knows with the devious Doctor in charge..!
bosyber (@bosyber)
21st October 2017, 16:51
Yep, that’s my feeling too @baron; anyway, it might also have been Marko/Tost’ idea so they could trial yet another driver for next year, but regardless, he gave it his best, got to within half a point of the championship, not giving up until it was over, and now has an F1 seat to look forward to. Looks a lot better than it was halfway through last year when he had a lot of F2 races that didn’t work out for him!
sean
21st October 2017, 17:27
ouch.
Manny Maurice (@riggerus)
21st October 2017, 18:07
His brief F1 foray was a bright spark in the season and he seems to have adapted seamlessly to the formula. Bring him back on, I say:)
eric
21st October 2017, 19:01
Well if he got the plane on time he can jump straight into the joker filled car.
Kvyatt is used to be abused by now..