Fuji SUPER GT: Bandoh Toyota scores third pole in succession

In a repeat of the all-Yokohama front row for SUPER GT's previous visit to Fuji in May, the #19 Toyota GR Supra shared by Yuji Kunimoto and Sena Sakaguchi led the Kondo Racing Nissan Z in the Q2 pole shootout.

Sakaguchi's best time of 1m26.178s was marginally slower than the lap with which he scored pole in May, but was a massive 0.635s quicker than Kohei Hirate's best effort in the Kondo Nissan.

It also continues Toyota's perfect streak of pole positions so far in the 2022 SUPER GT season.

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A pair of Bridgestone-shod Toyotas make up the second row, with Ritomo Miyata putting the #37 TOM'S GR Supra in third ahead of Yuji Tachikawa in the #38 Cerumo car, which is set to serve a 10-second stop-and-go-penalty in the race.

Next up in fifth was the best of the Hondas and the only NSX-GT to make it through to Q2, the #8 ARTA car of Tomoki Nojiri.

Giuliano Alesi qualified the #36 TOM'S Toyota in sixth, ahead of Bertrand Baguette in the #12 Impul Nissan and Tsugio Matsuda aboard the #23 NISMO Z.

The two cars that jointly lead the championship heading to Fuji both dropped out in Q1, not helped by their stage one fuel flow restrictors.

Rookie Racing Toyota man Kazuya Oshima could only manage 10th, one place behind the Team Kunimitsu Honda, while Mitsunori Takaboshi was 14th of the 15 runners in the #3 NDDP Racing Nissan that won last time at Suzuka.

However, the #3 Nissan will gain a spot on the grid at the expense of the Team Mugen Honda, which qualified 13th but will drop to the rear due to Toshiki Oyu earning a four-place grid penalty.

GT300: LEON Mercedes ends two-year pole drought

LEON Racing scored pole in the GT300 class for the first time since the 2020 season opener in a much improved showing for the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

Naoya Gamou, who shares the #65 LEON Mercedes with Takuro Shinohara, posted a 1m35.550s in Q2 to edge out the works Subaru BRZ of Hideki Yamauchi by a scant 0.017s for the top spot.

 

Goodsmile Racing's Nobuteru Taniguchi made it two Mercedes in the top three a further six tenths behind, also benefitting from a 5kg reduction in base weight for the AMG GT3 this weekend.

The two Gainer Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3s had topped their respective groups in Q1, but come Q2 Ryuichiro Tomita ended up fourth-fastest in the #10 car, while Hironobu Yasuda was ninth in the sister #11 car.

Augusto Farfus put the Studie BMW M4 GT3 eighth on the grid on his return to SUPER GT, having missed the previous round at Suzuka owing to a clash with the Nurburgring 24 Hours.

Farfus and teammate Seiji Ara will compete at Fuji as a duo after the team's third driver Tsubasa Kondo, who replaced Farfus at Suzuka, was forced to withdraw after a positive COVID-19 test.

The points-leading Kondo Racing Nissan of Joao Paulo de Oliveira and Kiyoto Fujinami starts 10th carrying 99kg of success ballast.

GT500 qualifying results:

Pos.	No.	Car	Drivers	Team	Tyre	Time
1	19	Toyota	Yuji Kunimoto  Sena Sakaguchi	Racing Project Bandoh	Y	1'26.178
2	24	Nissan	Kohei Hirate  Daiki Sasaki	Kondo Racing	Y	1'26.813
3	37	Toyota	Sacha Fenestraz  Ritomo Miyata	TOM'S	B	1'26.994
4	38	Toyota	Hiroaki Ishiura  Yuji Tachikawa	Cerumo	B	1'27.074
5	8	Honda	Nirei Fukuzumi  Tomoki Nojiri	ARTA	B	1'27.231
6	36	Toyota	Giuliano Alesi  Sho Tsuboi	TOM'S	B	1'27.328
7	12	Nissan	Bertrand Baguette  Kazuki Hiramine	Impul	B	1'27.352
8	23	Nissan	Tsugio Matsuda  Ronnie Quintarelli	NISMO	M	1'27.418
9	100	Honda	Naoki Yamamoto  Tadasuke Makino	Kunimitsu	B	1'27.362 (Q1)
10	14	Toyota	Kenta Yamashita  Kazuya Oshima	Rookie Racing	B	1'27.683
11	64	Honda	Takuya Izawa  Hiroki Otsu	Nakajima Racing	D	1'27.721
12	39	Toyota	Yuichi Nakayama  Yuhi Sekiguchi	SARD	B	1'27.754
13	16	Honda	Toshiki Oyu  Ukyo Sasahara	Mugen	D	1'27.805*
14	3	Nissan	Katsumasa Chiyo  Mitsunori Takaboshi	NDDP Racing	M	1'27.924
15	17	Honda	Nobuharu Matsushita  Koudai Tsukakoshi	Real Racing	B	1'27.928

* Before four-place grid penalty applied