Pipo Derani grabbed a last gasp pole position for Team BBT at a still bitterly cold Fuji Speedway, the Brazilian leaving it very late to wrest the pre-race bragging rights from the #8 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca of Thomas Laurent, a 1:32.102, a tenth and a half clear of the rapid young Frenchman.
The team spotting the threat too late, Laurent despatched for another crack at pole but with the conditions still near freezing was unable to switch on the Michelins again to counter.
Jazeman Jaafar had a great debut with the #7 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca, he ended the session third to start behind the BBT car for tomorrow’s four hour race with the #33 Eurasia Ligier of Marko Asmer completing the second row.
In LMP3, Zhuhai polesetter Josh Burdon made it two from two from the season in the #18 KCMG Ligier JS P3, a 1:35.255 good enough to see off the challenge not only from the remainder of the LMP3 entry, over a second clear of the #11 Taiwan Beer GH Motorsport car of Ye Hong Li with the LMP2 car of ARC Bratislava sandwiched between the leading two LMP3s. The #11 car though later lost their qualifying times after a protest was upheld citing the team for bringing tyre blankets into the garage area.
Richard Bradley then emerged in second place in class WIN Motorsport concentrating on race, rather than one lap, pace, with James Winslow in the #65 Vipr Nisa Racing car third quickesr in the session
The Tianshi Racing Audi was first to set a flying lap in the 15 minute GT Qualifying session, the pair of FIST AAI cars waiting for the last ten minutes to mount their effort.
The pair soon overhauled the Audi, Marco Cioci and Jesse Krohn swapping fastest lap times before the BMW man finally gained the edge, 1:37.861 two tenths faster for the #91 BMW M6 GT3 than the debuting #90 Ferrari 488 GT3.
The 4 hour race tomorrow starts at 12:20 local time with live streaming on the Series Website, Facebook page, You Tube channel and on broadcast stations worldwide.
