For the second year in a row, Kenta Yamashita has come to Fuji Speedway for Autobacs Super GT Series championship finale, and taken pole position with a new course record. The #14 Eneos X Prime Toyota GR Supra of Yamashita and Kazuya Oshima will start on pole for the Fuji GT 300km Race, ahead of the GT500 championship leaders’ #1 Stanley Honda NSX-GT of Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino.
As it unfolded, GT500 qualifying began at just past three o’clock in the afternoon. It was a sunny, cold day at Fuji Speedway, with track temperatures down to just 13°C, and ambient temperatures of 10°C.
In the morning’s practice session, Yamashita set the top time, and broke his own course record by three-hundredths of a second. But in Q1, it was clear that the lap record would fall even further, as Makino set a 1’26.011 on his first attack lap. On his second lap, he improved to an even 1’26.000, more than enough for a provisional course record – and for the reigning champions’ Stanley NSX-GT to advance into Q2. Hiroaki Ishiura in the #38 ZENT GR Supra and Yuichi Nakayama in the #39 Denso Kobelco SARD GR Supra also went under the course record as they progressed into Q2. Oshima finished seventh in Q1, good enough to advance.
But for two of the championship contenders, their qualifying ended earlier than they’d have hoped. The #17 Astemo NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Bertrand Baguette) missed the cut line by two-tenths of a second, and will start tenth. Not an ideal result, but not a catastrophe for a team that won the Fuji 500km in May from 11th on the grid. The #12 Calsonic Impul Nissan GT-R (Kazuki Hiramine/Nobuharu Matsushita) qualified a lacklustre 14th, in a must-win race for their championship aspirations.
The other four title contenders advanced into Q2, each with a chance at grabbing a bonus point for their respective teams.
With 90 seconds left in Q2, Yamamoto appeared to have sealed pole position away. He put in a searing lap time of 1’25.867, the first sub-1’26 lap by a GT500 car around Fuji Speedway since the course was renovated in 2005. Ryo Hirakawa in the #37 KeePer TOM’s GR Supra had a quick first sector, but lost time in the second and third sectors, and was 0.071 seconds back of his longtime rival. The chequered flag waved for the session, and neither Yamamoto nor Hirakawa were able to improve on their second laps.
But behind them, Yamashita had strung together personal bests in the first sector, and fastest outright second and third sectors, to snatch the pole away with a record lap of 1’25.764!
“Today, things were going well from the morning practice sessions, and then, thanks to Oshima-san’s run in Q1, we had really good settings for me to go into Q2 with,” said Yamashita. “I can’t say that my time attacks in Q2 were perfect, but the car was in such good condition that I was able to get pole position.”
“Since our current point standing makes a shot at the championship difficult, I was not thinking about that, but I really wanted to get pole position and I am very glad that I was able to beat my course record time from last year.”
This is Yamashita’s third career GT500 pole position. His record lap time – at an average speed of 191.535 km/h – was within a second of the Toyota TS050 Hybrid’s fastest qualifying lap from the 2019 6 Hours of Fuji (1’24.822) and within three seconds of the outright LMP1 lap record (1’22.639 set in 2015 by the Porsche 919 Hybrid of Mark Webber). This is also the first GT500 pole for ROOKIE Racing (TGR Team Eneos ROOKIE), who took their first win in the first race at Okayama.
To overturn a 19 point deficit and win their second Drivers’ Championships, however, Oshima and Yamashita still need to win the race. Then, they need the top three teams in the championship to finish well down the order.
Yamamoto missed out on pole position by a tenth of a second, but is still in prime position to clinch his third GT500 Drivers’ Championship in four years in tomorrow’s race.
He clinches the title unconditionally with a race win, or a second place finish, if he finishes ahead of the #8 ARTA NSX-GT. A third place finish would also suffice if the #8 and #17 Hondas do not win the race. Makino, who is mathematically ineligible for the Drivers’ title, will still do all that he can to ensure Team Kunimitsu can take both the Drivers’ and Teams’ titles.
“[Makino-san] proved to me that the car was capable of fighting for pole position, so I tried my best to translate that into results,” said Yamamoto. “But unfortunately I missed out on pole, which was quite frustrating. Since there is a title on the line, I will be required to fight in a slightly different way than usual. But in any case, it will still be the end of the world if I go on the defensive, so I will not go on the defensive – but I will fight smart and strong.”
Hirakawa and Sacha Fenestraz consolidated third on the grid for the #37 KeePer TOM’s GR Supra, eager to avenge their crushing defeat in last year’s Fuji finale and finish the season strong, in what is likely to be Hirakawa’s last Super GT race for the immediate future.
“After winning pole in the first race of the season, we haven’t been able to get any results for a long time,” said Hirakawa. “So tomorrow we want to make sure that this is ‘our race.’ At the very least, I’d like to finish on the podium!”
The #36 au TOM’s GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Sho Tsuboi) qualified fourth, and they are another team that must win the race to win the championship, with the #1 finishing seventh or lower, the #8 finishing fifth or lower, and the #17 finishing third or lower. Toyotas locked out four of the top five places, with the #39 Denso Supra of Nakayama and Heikki Kovalainen in fifth, and the #38 ZENT Supra of Ishiura and Yuji Tachikawa in seventh. The top seven cars in qualifying all broke the 2020 course record.
The #8 ARTA NSX-GT of “Double Champion” candidate Tomoki Nojiri and Nirei Fukuzumi qualified sixth, the lowest position they could finish in order to have any chance at winning the championship. They would win the title unconditionally by winning the race; a second place finish would require the Stanley NSX to finish fourth, and a third place finish would require the Stanley NSX to finish fifth.
The #3 CraftSports Motul GT-R (Kohei Hirate/Katsumasa Chiyo) was the only Nissan to advance to Q2 in the GT-R’s final weekend as the manufacturer’s GT500 vehicle. They finished Q2 in eighth place.
It was a day of record-breaking performances – but none more important than the record lap set by the #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport of Takuto Iguchi, and Hideki Yamauchi, who won his fourth pole of 2021 – and drove his team one step closer to a landmark championship in GT300.
At 2:30 PM, GT300 Q1 began with Group A. In this first group, Hiroki Yoshida in the #52 Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave GR Supra got to within two tenths of the GT300 course record, setting a 1’34.876 to lead the group and advance to Q2, while Iguchi’s first lap was third-quickest.
The #11 Gainer TanaX Nissan GT-R GT3 (Katsuyuki Hiranaka/Hironobu Yasuda) needed to win from pole to have a chance at the title, but Hiranaka missed the cut by more than four tenths. Eliminated from title contention, they will start 24th. Also missing the cut in Q1 was the #55 ARTA Honda NSX GT3 (Shinichi Takagi/Ren Sato). They completed only seven laps in practice due to a suspected electrical issue, and just fixed the issue in time to run in Q1. Takagi’s best lap was only good enough to get a tenth of a second behind the cut line, and the #55 ARTA NSX GT3 will start 20th.
In Q1 Group B, Yuya Motojima in the #88 JLOC Lamborghini Huracán GT3 got even closer to the course record, setting a 1’34.794 to top the group. Atsushi Miyake got the #244 Takanoko-no-yu GR Supra through to Q2 as well.
However, Kiyoto Fujinami in the #56 Realize/Nissan Automobile Technical College GT-R, was bumped out right at the end of the session. As a result, Fujinami and João Paulo de Oliveira will start 17th.
Q2 gradually built to its climax. With less than three minutes left, the #52 GreenBrave Supra of Kohta Kawaai set a new course record with a lap of 1’34.537, surpassing his own lap record from 2020. Yamauchi responded with a 1’34.709, and had time for one more flying lap as the chequered flag fell.
The so-called ‘handling monster’ maximised the third sector to claw back the deficit, and Yamauchi’s record-setting time of 1’34.395 gave him his fourth pole of the season, which also gives him his eighth career GT300 pole position – now tied for sixth on the all-time list.
“I owe this to the fact that everyone on the team worked so hard,” said Yamauchi. “Since I wanted to get this one point toward our first season title with this pole position, I think it is important and makes me want to strive even harder, so I think I did a very good job in that sense. I owe so much of this to Iguchi-san who gave me good advice after his run in Q1.”
“This all makes me so happy, more than just winning pole position. But we still have tomorrow’s race, and as a team we all want to get a win that will make all of our fans glad they cheered for us!”
With the point earned for pole position, Iguchi and Yamauchi can unconditionally clinch the GT300 title with a win or a second place finish, which would give Subaru their first GT300 championship in 24 years of competing. They can also finish third and win the title, if the #56 Nissan does not win the race.
Kawaai finished second in the end, putting the GreenBrave Supra on the front row for tomorrow’s race, with a decent chance to avenge a gutting late retirement from this year’s Fuji 500km.
In fact, two of the GTA-GT300 spec GR Supras qualified in the top three, with the #60 Syntium LM Corsa GR Supra (Hiroki Yoshimoto/Shunsuke Kohno), winners of this year’s Fuji 500km, in third. Takashi Kogure in the #88 JLOC Huracán qualified fourth, ahead of the #65 LEON Pyramid Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Naoya Gamou/Togo Suganami) in fifth.
The #2 muta Racing Lotus Evora MC (Hiroki Katoh/Ryohei Sakaguchi) was sixth, in what could be the mid-engined Mother Chassis Evora’s last run. The #4 Goodsmile Hatsune Miku AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi/Tatsuya Kataoka) was seventh, ahead of the #25 Hoppy Porsche 911 GT3-R (Takamitsu Matsui/Kimiya Sato), which finished eighth in the last race for this vehicle.
Yuui Tsutsumi had the ninth fastest time in Q2, but his fastest time was deleted due to a track limits infringement – moving the #244 Takanoko-no-yu Supra down to tenth on the grid.
Moving up one place, and securing their best ever Super GT grid position, is the #35 arto Lexus RC F GT3 (Sean Walkinshaw/Giuliano Alesi) in ninth. The only non-Japanese team in the series, arto Team Thailand had never qualified in the top ten in five seasons of competition!
The #56 Realize GT-R GT3 of Fujinami/Oliveira needs a minimum fourth place finish to win the championship; if they win the race, they need the #61 Subaru to finish third or lower. The #55 ARTA NSX GT3 now has to finish first or second, with a win requiring the #61 Subaru to finish fourth or lower. And the #244 Takanoko-no-yu Supra must win the race, with the #61 finishing seventh or lower plus the #56 Nissan finishing third or lower.
The Fuji GT 300km Race starts Sunday at 13:00 JST (local time), 4:00 GMT / 5:00 CET / Saturday 23:00 EST.
Images courtesy of the GT Association (GTA)
