Igor Fraga picked up a second career Super Formula victory this weekend, winning a rescheduled sprint race at Fuji Speedway. It was comfortably his best weekend yet in the series, and it’s vaulted the Gran Turismo legend up to third in the championship standings.
A Breakthrough Weekend at Fuji
Fuji Speedway was already hosting its usual pair of rounds this weekend, but the meeting grew to three races once Round 3 at Autopolis was rescheduled and run in sprint format alongside Fuji’s Rounds 6 and 7.
In the sprint, Fraga climbed from ninth on the grid to fourth by the end of the opening lap. At the restart following a safety car period, leaders Kakunoshin Ohta and Sena Sakaguchi both ran wide fighting for the lead at Turn 1, and Fraga seized the opening to take the lead in one clean move. He held it through a second safety car period and the restart that followed, taking the win by 2.079 seconds.
He carried that form into the delayed main event, which started 45 minutes late after his Nakajima Racing teammate’s car deposited oil on the circuit following a cracked gearbox, sending the field out from the pit lane behind the safety car.
Once green-flag racing began, Fraga passed both Dandelion cars at Turn 1 to move into second, before Ohta fought his way past and into the lead. A round of pit stops shuffled the order again; Fraga worked past both Iwasa and Nojiri to reclaim second place, a spot he held to the flag, crossing the line 4.9 seconds behind Ohta.
Across the full three-race weekend, Fraga’s points total jumped from seven to 39, good for third in the drivers’ championship and just 5.5 points behind second-placed Iwasa. Ohta, who also won Sunday’s main race, now leads the championship by 50.5 points with five races still to go.
Gran Turismo Roots
Of course, as most GTPlanet readers know, Fraga originally made his name in Gran Turismo, becoming the inaugural FIA Gran Turismo Nations Cup World Champion in 2018 and a Manufacturer Series world champion with Toyota in 2019 and 2021, on top of winning the 2022 Toyota Gazoo Racing GT Cup.
As we covered back in 2020, that success came at a point when his family had sacrificed nearly everything to fund his real-world racing dreams, and it gave him the platform to keep chasing them.
He’s kept climbing since: a Toyota Racing Series title, a Formula 3 season, and a move to Japan that took him through Super Formula Lights to a full-time Super Formula seat in 2025, where he picked up his first series win and Rookie of the Year honors.
He’s now also driving GT500 machinery for Nakajima Racing’s Super GT squad in 2026, all while still carrying Gran Turismo sponsorship on his helmet.
Congratulations, Igor, from all of us at GTPlanet! Here’s hoping the next five rounds bring more of the same!
