On the eve of qualifying for the third round of the 2018 Autobacs Super GT Series, the Suzuka GT 300km Fan Festival at legendary Suzuka Circuit, fans in attendance and around the world anticipated a number of record-breaking lap times throughout the field.
Saturday’s action delivered just that, with the previous official GT500 and GT300 lap records from last August’s Suzuka 1000km shattered in the morning practice, and then further obliterated in the afternoon in a frantic qualifying session, where all 15 cars in the GT500 class eclipsed the old course record, and the top 11 qualifiers in GT300 broke their old class record.
Out of the record-setting qualifying runs, it was the #8 ARTA Honda NSX-GT of Tomoki Nojiri and Takuya Izawa which took pole position in the GT500 class, and the #96 K-Tunes Racing Lexus RC F GT3 of Morio Nitta and Yuichi Nakayama which scored GT300 class pole position.
Going back to the morning practice, the conditions were great for new records. The cars were carrying far less Success Ballast than they were in the Suzuka 1000km of years past, the conditions were cooler on this Saturday in May than in August, and the escalating car and tyre developments all played a part. In the final seconds of practice, the #64 Epson Modulo NSX-GT of Bertrand Baguette set a best lap of 1’45.938, which beat João Paulo de Oliveira’s record lap from nine months ago, a 1’47.074, by over a second.
The winds were blowing strong, making things more than a little sketchy for the drivers during time trials around the narrow, lightning-quick 5.8 kilometer figure-eight circuit. But in the first of the two-stage knockout qualifying sessions, everyone raised their game.
Takuya Izawa drove the ARTA NSX in Q1, and he put in a blistering lap of 1’44.806 – the first ever recorded sub-1 minute 45 second GT500 laptime at Suzuka – to lead the session and advance into Q2. Izawa was Just ahead of Baguette in the Epson NSX in second, Jenson Button in the #100 Raybrig NSX-GT third, and Hideki Mutoh in the #16 Motul Mugen NSX-GT in fourth. With Takashi Kogure just getting into the top 8 in the final seconds aboard the #17 Keihin NSX-GT, all five Honda NSX-GTs made it into Q2.
Ronnie Quintarelli celebrates his 100th race as a Super GT driver this weekend at Suzuka, but qualifying was a struggle as expected for the #23 Motul Autech NISMO GT-R, the only car in the field carrying a “Stage 1” fuel flow restrictor this weekend. He and Tsugio Matsuda, who dominated the Fuji 500km just two weeks ago, will start 15th and last on the GT500 grid on Sunday.
All 5 Hondas, the two TOM’s-run Lexus LC500s, and the #12 Calsonic Impul GT-R all advanced into Q2.
With three minutes left, Tomoki Nojiri started on his flying lap in the ARTA NSX. He came around to finish with a 1’44.319, a time that now eclipsed the previous GT500 lap record by over 2.7 seconds. On his final lap, Naoki Yamamoto in the Raybrig NSX strung together even quicker Sector 1 and 2 times, but a slip-up in Sector 3 cost Yamamoto the pole position, as he fell just 0.154 seconds short with a 1’44.473.
With ARTA and Raybrig Team Kunimitsu on the front row, and Koudai Tsukakoshi managing 3rd in the Keihin NSX despite carrying 42kg of physical Success Ballast, Honda locked out the top three places in GT500 qualifying at the Honda-owned circuit, and it was the awesome Q2 performance of Nojiri that led the way for them, the 28-year-old celebrating his third career Super GT pole in record fashion.
“When Izawa-san recorded an amazing time in the 1’44 range in Q1, it surprised me to realize our car was capable of going this fast, and I have to admit that his time put real pressure on me,” said Nojiri after qualifying.
“But, when I pushed too hard and couldn’t keep to the inside of the second curve, it actually helped to cool me down and concentrate so I could run the rest of the lap in full control. Until now, we had been unable to bring out the full potential of the NSX-GT to some extent, so this pole position has brought back our confidence.”
Despite falling just short of pole position, Jenson Button, who won the 2011 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix at this circuit, and made his Super GT debut in last year’s Suzuka 1000km, feels confident in Team Kunimitsu’s chances of victory.
“[Qualifying] was good!” An animated Button exclaimed in an interview with J Sports lead commentator, Sascha Boeckle. “We came here confident that the car was working well here after the official test, where we were quickest. And to come away with P2 in qualifying – we’re really happy with that, because we’re carrying a lot of success ballast, so to put it P2 is awesome.”
“We can race really well from there, we’ve got a good tyre strategy and a couple of teammates around us, so it should be a good day tomorrow.”
When asked about the team’s strategy for Sunday, Button added: “We have a different tyre strategy to the cars around us…I think more similar to the #1 [KeePer TOM’s LC500], we’ll see how it works out, but with the hot temperatures tomorrow, it should be good for us.” According to pole man Nojiri, the three Bridgestone-clad Hondas that start 1-2-3 tomorrow had tyre pickup problems at Fuji that hampered their performance two weeks ago, so it will be fascinating to see how Team Kunimitsu try and counteract it.
That KeePer LC500 was the best of the two Lexus on the grid, with defending GT500 champions Ryo Hirakawa and Nick Cassidy starting fourth, ahead of Baguette and Kosuke Matsuura, the winners of the final Super GT Suzuka 1000km, starting fifth in the Dunlop-clad Epson NSX.
The Calsonic GT-R of Jann Mardenborough and Daiki Sasaki was sixth-quickest, ahead of the Motul Mugen NSX of Mutoh and Daisuke Nakajima seventh, and the #36 au TOM’s LC500 (Kazuki Nakajima/Yuhi Sekiguchi) eighth.
In the GT300 class, the two LM Corsa-run Lexus RC F GT3s were looking to be the class of the field in practice, and it was the #96 K-Tunes RC F of Nitta and Nakayama which came out on top in qualifying.
Carrying over from their strong performances in April’s official test and that morning’s free practice, the ageless veteran Nitta went second-quickest in Q1, and then in Q2, Nakayama stormed to a record lap time of a 1’55.531 to take his third career GT300 class pole position, and the first Super GT pole for the Lexus RC F GT3.
“I am very happy to have won this pole position,” said Nakayama. “It is the first pole for the RC F and for our team. Although we hadn’t been able to get good results until now this season, the car’s condition has improved a lot since we came here to Suzuka and it is now a lot faster now.”
“For this, I am grateful not only to our team that set up the car so well but also to Lexus for developing the LEXUS RC F GT3 into such a good car, and also to [development drivers] Yuji Tachikawa, Akira Iida and Juichi Wakasaka.”
With Nitta and Nakayama on pole position, Nitta also has a chance to draw back even with his old co-driver Shinichi Takagi with his 19th career GT300 class victory in tomorrow’s race. Takagi, in the #55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3, struggled mightily in Q1 on +52kg of ballast, so he and Sean Walkinshaw will start 20th.
The #25 Hoppy Toyota 86 MC was quickest in Q1 courtesy of Fuji 500km breakout star Sho Tsuboi, and in Q2, Tsuchiya Engineering’s ace, Takamitsu Matsui, was second-quickest, putting them on the front row at a track where the Mother Chassis cars have always been quick since 2015. Tsuboi, however, was given a ¥20,000 JPY fine for not wearing his cooling suit, now mandatory since the Fuji 500km for all warm-weather races.
The #0 Goodsmile Hatsune Miku Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka) qualified third, ahead of the #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi) in fourth, another traditionally strong Suzuka performer. Fifth-fastest was the second LM Corsa Lexus RC F, the #60 Syntium LM Corsa RC F (Hiroki Yoshimoto/Ritomo Miyata), and last year’s GT300 class winners at the Suzuka 1000km, the #65 LEON Cvstos AMG (Haruki Kurosawa/Naoya Gamou), will start 6th.
It was also a good day in qualifying for the new Honda NSX GT3, with the #34 Modulo Kenwood NSX GT3 (Ryo Michigami/Hiroki Otsu) gridding up tenth tomorrow, the best Super GT start for the NSX GT3 in its third race.
Only one incident put a damper on the GT300 qualifying proceedings, when Hiroki Katoh spun and crashed his #2 Syntium Apple Lotus Evora MC at Dunlop Corner. That brought out a red flag, which resulted in his only lap being deleted from the standings – so Katoh and Kazuho Takahashi will start last in the GT300 field.
Tomorrow’s 52-lap Suzuka 300km will be broadcast live internationally on NISMO TV, and in Japan on J Sports 4, starting at 14:40 JST / 6:40 BST / 7:40 CEST / 1:40 AM EDT.
Images courtesy of the GT Association
