Honda’s incredible resurgence in the premier class of the Autobacs Super GT Series continued in Saturday’s qualifying for the Chang Super GT Race in Buriram, Thailand. This time, it was the #16 Motul Mugen NSX-GT of Hideki Mutoh and Daisuke Nakajima that took pole position, securing Honda’s third GT500 pole – and their third front-row lockout – in four races.
The volatile climate around Chang International Circuit during Thailand’s rainy season saw sunny skies all throughout the morning practice turn to a sudden, and heavy downpour, with minutes to go before the scheduled start time of 15:00 local time. Thus, the proceedings were pushed back 15 minutes to allow the track to dry.
The track dried out quickly enough by the time GT500’s first phase of knockout qualifying that by the middle of the session, teams would feel comfortable putting slick tyres on their cars. Early on, with wet tyres, Bertrand Baguette lifted the #64 Epson Modulo NSX-GT to the top of the leaderboards. But as the track dried, Epson Nakajima Racing played it safe and sent the Belgian out on wet tyres for his second run, then exchanged to dry Dunlop tyres as they realized the track was now dry enough to warrant slicks. A spin on their final run ensured the Epson NSX would be relegated out in Q1, after leading the session for so long.
Daiki Sasaki, then, was the quickest driver in Q1 in the #12 Calsonic Impul Nissan GT-R, with a time of 1’27.015 – with still more time to be found in Q2.
Lexus saw four of their cars relegated after Q1, including the #1 KeePer TOM’s LC500 (Ryo Hirakawa/Nick Cassidy) that won this race a year ago, and the #36 au TOM’s LC500 (Kazuki Nakajima/Yuhi Sekiguchi), with the reigning Le Mans winner pushed out in the frantic final laps. The #3 CraftSports Motul GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama/Katsumasa Chiyo), which was quickest in practice, missed out in 9th, as did the #23 Motul Autech GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli) – so both Michelin-clad Nissans failed to get out of Q1.
Four of the five Hondas advanced into Q2 – including the championship-leading #100 Raybrig NSX-GT of Naoki Yamamoto, despite their fuel flow restrictions for the race – which would give co-driver Jenson Button a chance for pole position.
By 4 PM and the start of Q2, the track was now dry enough for a proper attack at the course record, set in October 2016. Halfway through the session, Heikki Kovalainen eclipsed the record first, with a 1’23.882 in his #39 Denso Kobelco SARD LC500. Then just seconds later, Koudai Tsukakoshi fired in a 1’23.458 to put the #17 Keihin NSX-GT on provisional pole.
But on his final flying lap, Mutoh and the Mugen NSX went on a belter, setting the fastest outright first sector, the fastest outright second sector, and a personal third sector that was just quick enough for a total time of 1’23.341. A new course record, nearly a full second quicker than Yuhi Sekiguchi’s previous record in qualifying in 2016.
This was the first pole position for Team Mugen in GT500 competition since March 2001, when reigning GT500 champion Ryo Michigami won pole at the TI Circuit Aida (now Okayama International Circuit). Mugen, who did not enter GT500 as a team from 2004 to 2016, finished the 2017 championship at the bottom of the Teams’ Championship, and haven’t finished better than 6th since their return to the premier class.
For Mutoh, it’s his second career GT500 pole position, his first since the 2016 Suzuka 1000km.
Tsukakoshi held on to finish 2nd, and Keihin Real Racing will make up the second half of Honda’s third front-row lockout of the year. The second row will have the #39 Denso LC500 of Kovalainen and Kamui Kobayashi, and the #24 Forum Engineering Advan GT-R (João Paulo de Oliveira/Mitsunori Takaboshi), third and fourth on the grid respectively.
Fifth-fastest was Button in the #100 Raybrig NSX, followed by the #19 WedsSport Advan LC500 (Yuji Kunimoto/Kenta Yamashita), the winning team from 2016, in sixth. Completing the top 8 was Jann Mardenborough in the #12 Calsonic GT-R in seventh, and the #8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Takuya Izawa), in 8th.
GT300 was a wild affair throughout both qualifying sessions, and they were the class that had to tackle a soaking wet Chang International Circuit after the afternoon squall.
With only 23 cars entered, the top 14 would still advance, but the wet conditions made things extremely treacherous. Taku Bamba had a spin in his #52 Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave Toyota Mark X MC, a number of the JAF-GT/Mother Chassis cars that struggled mightily for grip in the wet conditions.
While they had the benefit of extra downforce, they also lacked the traction control and ABS of the FIA GT3 cars around them. This saw championship front-runners like the #25 Hoppy 86 MC (Takamitsu Matsui/Sho Tsuboi), and the #18 UPGarage 86 MC (Yuhki Nakayama/Takashi Kobayashi) struggle, and eventually, miss out on advancing to Q2. So too did both of the Toyota Prius apr GTs.
Hardest done at the final cut was Rintaro Kubo, who just missed moving the #9 Gulf NAC Porsche 911 into Q2 by 0.001 seconds from the #50 EXE Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Hideto Yasuoka.
A wet Q1 had thrown many surprises, but the biggest was at the top of the leaderboards. Kantadhee Kusiri, a Super GT debutant making a one-off entry in the #32 est Cola Bentley Continental GT3 by local AAS Motorsport, edged out the #21 Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS of Ryuichiro Tomita by just 0.005 seconds. The 25-year-old Thai rookie then improved another half-second on a drying track, and the Michelin-clad Bentley topped the first round of qualifying in a significant upset.
Going into Q2, Audi Team Hitotsuyama still would have been the favourites, having won pole position here last October, and having Richard Lyons on track for the run for pole, on a Dunlop-clad Audi that was clearly soaring to the challenge on a damp track.
Lyons put in a best lap of 1’32.840, but not enough to take pole position. That opened the door for Naoya Gamou in the #65 LEON Cvstos AMG, which then jumped to provisional pole position with 2 minutes to go.
Then, Andrea Caldarelli, making his Super GT return in the #88 ManePa Lamborghini Huracán GT3, went to provisional pole with a time of 1’32.554. Gamou still had one more flying lap, and despite a ragged first sector, he put in the fastest second and third sectors – and also turned in a 1’32.554. Because Caldarelli set his time first, the Italian had provisionally given himself, co-driver Kazuki Hiramine, and Team JLOC their second pole of the 2018 season.
But following technical inspection, the #88 ManePa Huracán’s air restrictors were found to be outside the prescribed regulation, and they were excluded from the session, giving Gamou and Haruki Kurosawa the pole position in the Bridgestone-clad #65 LEON AMG.
This is Gamou’s second GT300 pole position, his first since the 2017 Okayama round.
The #10 Gainer TanaX triple a GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino/Hiroki Yoshida) would have been second on the grid, but they too were excluded from qualifying for violating the Balance of Performance (BoP) settings for the race. So Lyons, Tomita, and the #21 Audi will start second for tomorrow’s race.
The #55 ARTA BMW M6 GT3 (Shinichi Takagi/Sean Walkinshaw) will start third with a big chance at pulling out a lead in the GT300 championships, ahead of the #11 Gainer TanaX GT-R (Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Hironobu Yasuda) in fourth. Last year’s winning car, the #96 K-Tunes RC F GT3 (Morio Nitta/Yuichi Nakayama), starts fifth alongside the #61 Subaru of Iguchi and Hideki Yamauchi.
Maxime Jousse could not replicate his Thai co-driver’s Q1 heroics in the #32 est Cola Continental, but the rookie Frenchman did enough to put them 10th on the grid with a serious chance to win this race with zero weight handicap to worry about.
Tomorrow’s 66-lap race will be live in its entirety on NISMO TV, starting at 9 AM BST / 10 AM CEST / 4 AM EDT.
GT500 QUALIFYING RESULTS >>>
GT300 QUALIFYING RESULTS >>>
Images courtesy of the GT Association (GTA)
