Kazuya Oshima and Andrea Caldarelli will start from pole position for the fourth round of the 2016 Super GT season in the WAKO’s 4CR RC F after a 1:10.516 record-breaking lap by Oshima in Q2, taking pole by two tenths of a second ahead of the KeihinE Honda NSX Concept-G of Koudai Tsukakoshi and Takashi Kogure.
“For some time, we haven’t been able to takepole position, despite being fast in the practice sessions, so I am very happy that we were able to get the pole like this today,” Oshima said after. “But, I have to admit that I was more nervous than usual today.
“The mood has been very good on the team recently and I was really looking forward to driving today, and when I got out there I was indeed able to enjoy the drive. So, I pushed 120% and my rear tires were sliding all the time, but I was able to keep things in control and get the pole position. I am really glad with this result.”
Third place for tomorrow’s race went to the ZENT CERUMO Lexus RC F of Yuji Tachikawa and Hiroaki Ishiura after a 1:10.936 in Q2 by Tachikawa. Fourth and fifth spots were secured by the #36 TOMS Lexus and Drago Modulo Honda NSX respectively.
Down the order, disaster struck for the reigning champion #1 Motul Autech Nissan GT-R brea. Ronnie Quintarelli crashed on his final lap in Q1, causing red flags. The car will start last on the grid.
GT300 saw the #25 VivaC Toyota 86 MC of Takeshi Tsuchiya and Takemitsu Matsui take pole after a 1:17.493 set by Matsui, which was his first pole in the series. Like GT500, it was also a Sugo lap record for the class.
“I am just very happy that I was able to get my first Super GT pole position,” expressed Matsui. “We took the pole position at Okayama, but that time I made a mistake in Q1 and Takeshi [Tsuchiya] came back in Q2 to win it for us. That was something I regretted very much.
“So, I am really glad that I was able to get the pole with my own driving when they had me run in Q2 today. Still, I have say that this pole was won by the team at the garage that have made the car for us and Takeshi-san who has tuned it as engineer and everyone else who has worked on the car.”
Tomorrow’s race starts at 13:50 local time in Japan and 05:50 in the UK. The race will be streamed on NISMO.TV with English commentary provided by Radiolemans.com.
