With zero success ballast on board, the #24 Nissan Z shared by Hirate and Daiki Sasaki looked like a contender for pole from the start of the weekend, with Sasaki setting the pace in Saturday morning practice.
Sasaki was at the wheel for Q1, going second-fastest behind the Racing Project Bandoh Toyota of Sena Sakaguchi, but in the Q2 pole shootout Hirate was the driver to beat with a best time of 1m44.320s.
