Fuji Speedway is the home circuit of Toyota, but in qualifying for the Autobacs SUPER GT Series’ annual Golden Week race, it was Honda and Team Kunimitsu who struck first and won pole position for the Fujimaki Group Fuji GT 450km Race.
The #100 Stanley Honda NSX-GT of Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino will start up front in Thursday’s 100-lap, 450-kilometre race after a great run in Wednesday’s Qualifying.
In contrast to the constant rain from the first round at Okayama International Circuit, conditions over Mount Fuji were picture-perfect for Qualifying. The wet weather in the first round didn’t really give a clear indication as to which of the three GT500 makes had adapted to the use of carbon-neutral racing fuel the best. Fuji and its one-and-a-half kilometre front stretch would be a more appropriate test bed to measure that progress.
In Practice earlier in the morning, the Nissan Z GT500s were able to eclipse 300 kilometres per hour down the speed trap – but the Honda and Toyota teams had the fastest lap times, led by the Stanley NSX.
In Q1, ARTA’s two cars were the stars of the session. Hiroki Otsu went quickest in the black #16 ARTA Mugen NSX-GT, followed closely by Toshiki Oyu in the orange #8 car. While ARTA’s “Oh Team” led the way, the straight-line speed of the Nissans didn’t manifest into competitive times for most of their fleet.
The #3 Niterra Motul Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Mitsunori Takaboshi), the Okayama race-winning #23 Motul Autech Z (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli), and the defending champions’ #1 Marelli Impul Z (Kazuki Hiramine/Bertrand Baguette) all failed to make the top eight and will start ninth, tenth, and 12th respectively. Also, the #38 ZENT Cerumo GR Supra (Yuji Tachikawa/Hiroaki Ishiura) was 13th after Ishiura had a lock-up on his flying lap. Ishiura has already posted to social media that the ZENT Cerumo will start tomorrow’s race from pit lane in order to start on a new set of tyres.
Yamamoto, meanwhile, had just snuck into Q2 with the eighth-fastest time. But after a change of drivers, Makino made the most of his time attack. With one minute left, Makino leapt to the top of the time sheets with a 1’26.420, a time which would not be beaten.
This was Honda’s first pole at Fuji since September 2020, ending a five-race pole streak for Toyota – and ensuring that the NSX-GT would start up front for its final Fuji Golden Week race. For Makino, it was his second career GT500 pole position in the last three rounds, dating back to the 2022 finale at Mobility Resort Motegi.
A massive error in Okayama had been weighing heavily on Makino’s mind for weeks. He came into a closed pit during a Full Course Yellow and had to serve a 60-second penalty stop which cost his team a chance of a podium or victory. “In tomorrow’s race, I want to make up for the mistake I made in the opening round,” Makino said after qualifying.
“I am very, very happy,” smiled the 25-year-old from Osaka. “At the official test sessions at Fuji, we weren’t able to run well because of the rain, so I think we owe this pole position to Yamamoto-san, who ran superbly in Q1 to get us through so I could compete in Q2.”
It’s also worth mentioning that in the first dry-weather Qualifying session since adopting carbon-neutral fuel, despite the concerns of power loss, Makino’s pole time was less than three-tenths slower than the pole time from this event last year in similar weather conditions.
The #19 WedsSport Advan Toyota GR Supra of Yuji Kunimoto and Sena Sakaguchi, which got the pole for both Fuji rounds in 2022 and at three of the last four events held at the speedway, came close to snatching pole position at the chequered flag.
But Sakaguchi’s lap time of 1’26.496 was just 0.076 seconds off the mark. No matter, the Yokohama-clad WedsSport Supra will start from the front row again, in another effort to end a six-year winless drought in GT500 and finally convert its qualifying form into a good race result.
Nirei Fukuzumi qualified third aboard the #16 ARTA NSX, and the #14 Eneos X Prime GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima/Kenta Yamashita) was fourth-fastest.
The only Nissan that made it into Q2 was the #24 Realize Corporation Advan Z (Daiki Sasaki/Kohei Hirate). Hirate held provisional pole for a brief time in Q2 but his time would shake out for fifth-fastest.
A pre-race favourite to win, the #36 au TOM’s GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi/Ritomo Miyata), was sixth-fastest in the end. Tomoki Nojiri was seventh in Q2 aboard the #8 ARTA NSX, while the #17 Astemo NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Nobuharu Matsushita) rounds out the top eight from GT500 Qualifying.
GT300 Qualifying was just as intriguing. The #56 Realize/Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R GT3 of João Paulo de Oliveira and Teppei Natori took pole position, a surprising first for the two-time GT300 Champion Oliveira!
The Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3s projected to be a threat for pole, especially after both of Gainer’s Dunlop-clad cars led their respective Q1 groups – Riki Okusa in the #10 Ponos Gainer GT-R, and Ryuichiro Tomita in the #11 Gainer TanaX GT-R.
But when all was settled in Q2, Oliveira came out ahead of them and the other 25 cars in the class. Natori was third-fastest in Q1 Group B, and Oliveira’s time of 1’35.114 with 90 seconds left in Q2 would be enough for him to win pole position. The Brazilian had earned seven pole positions during his 13-year GT500 career, but this was his first pole position since moving to GT300.
Even more surprising for the two-time and defending GT300 champion squad Kondo Racing, this is their first GT300 pole position in four years – their first since Kazuki Hiramine won the pole for the 2019 Fuji 500km, alongside Sacha Fenestraz.
“The car felt good from the morning’s official practice, and it felt like our prospects were very good for the qualifying and the race to come,” Oliveira said. “Like our pace in this qualifying, I feel that our pace will also be good in the race. Our tyres are also well-fitted for the conditions here, and we have a good set-up for the car. All that remains is for us to do a good job with the preparations for tomorrow’s race.”
In only its second race, the hybrid-powered #31 apr Lexus LC500h will start from the front row in second place. Debuting third driver Yuki Nemoto went second-fastest in Q1 Group B while Kazuto Kotaka secured second on the grid in Q2, as veteran Koki Saga watched proudly from the garage.
It’s been ten years since the Toyota Prius GT300 became the first hybrid car to win in SUPER GT, and its successor has a great chance to win tomorrow’s race.
A great final lap attack from Nobuteru Taniguchi in Q2 put he and co-driver Tatsuya Kataoka’s #4 Goodsmile Hatsune Miku Mercedes-AMG GT3 third on the grid.
Two more GTA-GT300 cars on Bridgestone tyres were fourth and fifth, the #52 Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave Toyota GR Supra (Hiroki Yoshida/Kohta Kawaai), and the #2 muta Racing GR86 (Yuui Tsutsumi/Hibiki Taira/Hiroki Katoh).
The #88 JLOC Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO (Takashi Kogure/Yuya Motojima) qualified sixth-fastest, followed by the #11 Gainer GT-R (Ryuichiro Tomita/Keishi Ishikawa/Yusuke Shiotsu) and the #10 Ponos GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda/Riki Okusa), sharing the fourth row in seventh and eighth. The #65 LEON Pyramid AMG (Naoya Gamou/Takuro Shinohara), and the #96 K-tunes Lexus RC F GT3 (Morio Nitta/Shinichi Takagi), completed the top ten from GT300 Qualifying.
Further back, the #18 UPGarage Honda NSX GT3 (Takashi Kobayashi/Syun Koide) will start 15th, laden with 60kg of Success Weight following their win at Okayama.
In a big surprise, the #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi) missed the cut in Q1 Group B. They had a transmission problem which limited their running in Practice, and Iguchi could only go tenth-fastest in the group stage – which converts to a 19th-place start for the car that once won three straight Fuji pole positions and had started on the front row every time it raced here since its debut.
On the other hand, the #5 Mach Syaken/Air Buster MC86 Mach Go (Yusuke Tomibayashi/Takamitsu Matsui) recovered from mechanical issues suffered in Practice and made Q2 for the first time this season with the newer Mother Chassis.
Strategic options will be plentiful in Thursday’s race – and the challenge will be turned up now that fewer sets of tyres are available to every team.
The green flag is set to wave at 1:30 PM JST (local time), 5:30 AM BST / 6:30 AM CEST / 12:30 AM EDT. Who will take home the victories in SUPER GT’s most prestigious race?
Images © GTA
