The #19 WedsSport Advan Toyota GR Supra of Yuji Kunimoto and Sena Sakaguchi has won its second consecutive pole position in the 2022 Autobacs SUPER GT Series. After Sakaguchi won pole for the Fuji GT 450km Race earlier this month, it was his veteran team mate Kunimoto who captured his first career GT500 pole for Sunday’s running of the Takanokono Hotel Suzuka GT 300km Race.
GT500 qualifying began with just 14 cars. The #38 ZENT Cerumo GR Supra (Yuji Tachikawa/Hiroaki Ishiura) did not take part after suffering an engine failure at the very end of the morning’s Free Practice session. Their efforts to replace the engine before qualifying didn’t quite come together to allow them to make a run in Q1, which began just before 3:30 PM local time. It was a warm, late Spring day with ambient temperatures hovering around 30°C for the start of the session.
The #3 CraftSports Motul Nissan Z had been completely rebuilt in the weeks since Mitsunori Takaboshi suffered his terrifying crash at Fuji Speedway, using the monocoque from NISMO’s R&D test vehicle, and a brand new engine after both were too damaged to be used again. From the ashes, the CraftSports Z flew to the top of the board in Q1, as Katsumasa Chiyo set a time of 1’44.230 – a time which surpassed Tomoki Nojiri’s course record of 1’44.319 set in 2018 – and, more importantly, secured NDDP Racing a place in Q2.
Kenta Yamashita in the #14 Eneos X Prime GR Supra, carrying 46 kilos of Success Weight this weekend, bumped his way into eighth place just before the chequered flag, only to be bumped out with just two seconds left. Yamashita and Kazuya Oshima, the championship leaders, will start ninth tomorrow after missing out on a Q2 berth by just 0.020 seconds. Also on the wrong side of the cut line was the #23 Motul Autech Z of Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli, who are going for their fourth consecutive GT500 victory at Suzuka. But they’ll have to do so from 12th on the grid, after being the quickest car during the Practice session this morning.
They’ll line up ahead of the Fuji-winning #8 ARTA Honda NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Nirei Fukuzumi) down in 13th, and the #100 Stanley NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) in 14th.
Of the four Toyotas, two Nissans, and two Hondas that made it to Q2, surely it was destined that Takaboshi would capture his first career GT500 pole position aboard the CraftSports Z. With his car dragging and sparking spectacularly along the tarmac as it had done all throughout Practice and Q1, Takaboshi set the top time of 1’44.425 with less than two minutes left in the session. Ritomo Miyata in the #37 KeePer TOM’s GR Supra might have had a run to challenge, but he locked up going into the Triangle Chicane on his first flying lap, and settled for a 1’44.500 to go to second.
Behind them all, Kunimoto had put in the outright fastest first and second sectors. His car was hooked up through Suzuka’s high-speed S-Curves, Gyaku Bank, Dunlop Corner, and through the Degner combination. He only needed personal best sectors three and four to carry himself to the top of the board in qualifying and give TGR Team WedsSport Bandoh their first set of consecutive pole positions in GT500.
The time from Kunimoto was a jaw-dropping 1’44.112, which translates to an average speed of 200.795 kilometres per hour around the 5.807km figure-eight circuit. It’s also within less than two tenths of a second from the fastest-ever sports car qualifying lap around Suzuka, which was the 1’43.957 set at the 1992 Suzuka 1000km by the Peugeot 905 Evo 1 of Philippe Alliot!
It’s Kunimoto’s first career pole in his eleventh season as a GT500 driver, and the 2016 Super Formula Champion and one-time Le Mans starter for Toyota Gazoo Racing will be determined to end Bandoh’s nearly six-year winless drought on Sunday.
“It certainly took us a long time to get this,” Kunimoto said with a laugh, “and it was tough getting it. The car was very good, and it handled like an extension of my arms and legs. Even when the car was sliding there was a sense of stability. And since the car was so good, I was able to make a perfect time attack.”
And with warmer temperatures this weekend than at Fuji, this should help put temperature into their Yokohama tyres at the start of the race, to prevent them from freefalling down the order as they did in the opening laps at Fuji.
Miyata had time for one last time attack, and he was able to improve to second position, putting him and Sacha Fenestraz on the front row in their KeePer TOM’s GR Supra. They enter the weekend with zero points from the first two races, but with no success weight to worry about, they’re in a great position to kickstart their season with a win tomorrow.
That effort pushed the CraftSports Z of Takaboshi down to third in Q2, which was still the best of the Nissans. This result would stand after the CraftSports Z passed post-qualifying checks, which was a relief to some who were worried about how much the car was bottoming out through some corners!
They’ll be a real threat to score the first win for the new Nissan Z in GT500 – which would be the first GT500 win for both drivers, and would cap off a remarkable comeback for the NDDP Racing team.
The #16 Red Bull Motul Mugen NSX-GT (Ukyo Sasahara/Toshiki Oyu) qualified best out of the Honda fleet in fourth, marking an improvement for the Dunlop-clad NSX after two lacklustre qualifying and race results. They were just ahead of the #17 Astemo NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Nobuharu Matsushita), who will try once again to end Real Racing’s infamous Suzuka curse from fifth on the grid tomorrow.
The #39 Denso Kobelco SARD GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Yuichi Nakayama) qualified sixth, ahead of the #12 Calsonic Impul Z (Kazuki Hiramine/Bertrand Baguette) in seventh, and the #36 au TOM’s GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi/Giuliano Alesi) in eighth.
While the story of GT500 qualifying was the new course records and the all-out efforts to secure pole position, post-qualifying penalties played a major role in the outcome of GT300 qualifying, which began at 2:30 PM local time.
The proceedings began with the group Q1 sessions. In Group A, the #7 Studie BMW M4 GT3 of Seiji Ara set the top time. Those falling short of the cut line included the #52 Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave Toyota GR Supra (Hiroki Yoshida/Kohta Kawaai), which had been bumped in the final seconds by the #50 Arnage MC86 (Ryosei Yamashita/Ryohei Sakaguchi); the #34 Busou raffinée GT-R (Masataka Yanagida/Yuji Ide), which finished second in Fuji, was only 11th quickest in the group.
In Group B, the #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport maintained its incredible qualifying form as Takuto Iguchi topped the group. Kimiya Sato had a time quick enough to put the #244 Hachi-Ichi GR Supra into Q2, but his fastest lap was deleted due to a track limits infringement, and it put Sato and Atsushi Miyake down to the bottom of their group and out of the Q2 shootout. Also, Hideki Mutoh had a frightening moment at 130R corner, when his #55 ARTA Honda NSX GT3 did a 720° spin after clipping too much of the inside kerb. Mutoh and Iori Kimura just missed the cut by less than a tenth of a second.
All the while, four of the six Nissan GT-Rs had advanced out of their Q2 groups and looked a serious threat to snatch pole in GT300. In the final two minutes of Q2, Riki Okusa in the #10 TanaX Gainer GT-R set a flying lap of 1’56.552 to take provisional pole, ahead of Takashi Kogure in the #88 weibo Primez Lamborghini Huracán GT3 in second.
What looked to be the shock of all shocks was happening simultaneously: Hideki Yamauchi was on a lap that was three-tenths ahead of Okusa through sector two, but then, the turbo hose on the #61 Subaru BRZ came loose, and Yamauchi was forced to abort his run! It was an unceremonious end to Subaru’s streak of three consecutive pole positions in GT300.
At the flag, Okusa’s time was unsurpassed, and it looked as if the #10 TanaX GT-R of Okusa and Ryuichiro Tomita would follow up their abbreviated Fuji 450km victory with pole position at Suzuka. But after post-qualifying technical inspection, it was found that the #10 TanaX GT-R had failed to meet the minimum ground clearance, and their results were annulled!
Also, Kogure’s top time of 1’56.693 was deleted due to a track limits infringement, which dropped the #88 weibo Huracán of Kogure and Yuya Motojima to ninth on the grid!
The ultimate benefactor of these post-qualifying penalties was the car that had finished third at the flag: The #7 Studie M4 of Tsubasa Kondo, first-time GT300 polesitters!
Kondo’s best lap of 1’56.743 would be more than enough for the new-generation M4 GT3’s first SUPER GT pole position, the first for BMW since the 2018 Fuji Golden Week race when Shinichi Takagi drove his ARTA M6 GT3 to pole.
For Michelin, it’s their first GT300 pole since Alexandre Imperatori got the top spot in Buriram for local wildcards AAS Motorsport in 2014; for Studie, it’s their first since the end of the 2011 season when they were still partnered with Goodsmile Racing. And for Kondo, who’s in this weekend filling in for a Nürburgring-bound Augusto Farfus, it’s his first pole as a GT300 driver!
GT300’s newest and latest FIA GT3 car will share the front row with one of the oldest cars: The #96 K-Tunes Lexus RC F GT3 (Morio Nitta/Shinichi Takagi) finished second in Q1 Group A, then backed that up with Nitta finishing second in Q2.
And despite carrying 66 kilos of Success Weight this weekend, the #56 Realize/Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R (Kiyoto Fujinami/João Paulo de Oliveira) put in a sensational qualifying performance in third, with plenty of upsets to be had in the adjusted top half of the GT300 grid.
For starters, how about the #30 apr Toyota GR86 GT300 of Hiroaki Nagai and Manabu Orido? Orido did well enough to get into the top eight in his Q1 group, but the real surprise was gentleman driver and Mie Prefecture native Nagai, who qualified fourth – and had a faster time in Q2 than the one Orido set in Q1! They qualified ahead of the #87 Bamboo Airways Lamborghini (Kosuke Matsuura/Natsu Sakaguchi), who moved up to fifth after the penalty for their sister car.
Another upset in the GT300 ranks came as the #360 RunUp Rivaux GT-R (Takayuki Aoki/Yusaku Shibata) advanced to Q2 with Shibata, then Aoki set the sixth-fastest time in Q2, putting them ahead of the #5 Mach Syaken Air Buster MC86 (Yusuke Tomibayashi/Reiji Hiraki) in a remarkable seventh. The #11 Gainer TanaX GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda/Keishi Ishikawa) made it three Nissans in the top eight, ahead of the #88 weibo Huracán of Kogure/Motojima, and then the #65 LEON Pyramid Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Naoya Gamou/Takuro Shinohara) in tenth.
Further back, the #61 Subaru BRZ of Iguchi/Yamauchi starts 15th, and the qualifying exclusion will see the #10 TanaX GT-R of Tomita/Okusa start 27th on the GT300 grid.
On a weekend filled with some of the best that motorsport has to offer around the world, the Suzuka 300km begins Sunday at 14:30 JST (5:30 UTC / 6:30 BST / 7:30 CEST / 1:30 EDT)!
Images © GTA, except where otherwise indicated
