The 52-lap Suzuka 300km precedes a two-month summer break, so success at the famous Japanese Formula 1 venue will be vital for each team to wrap up the first part of the season on a positive note.
Nissan has ruled the roost at Suzuka in recent years, with the #23 NISMO car of Ronnie Quintarelli and Tsugio Matsuda unbeaten in the last three races there, but the introduction of the all-new Z to replace the old GT-R - which was the clear class of the field at Suzuka - could change things altogether.
Honda in particular showed very strong pace at Suzuka in pre-season testing, and one of its three Bridgestone teams, the locally-based Real Racing (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Nobuharu Matsushita) comes into the race low on success ballast but high on motivation to turn around a poor start to the season.
Suzuka has also been a happy hunting ground for Dunlop in the past, so look for the NSX-GTs of Nakajima Racing (Takuya Izawa/Hiroki Otsu) and Mugen (Toshiki Oyu/Ukyo Sasahara) to likewise take advantage of their low success ballast.
In the Nissan camp, Mitsunori Takaboshi will be back in action after his huge crash at Fuji, which will only have strengthened the determination of he and NDDP Racing teammate Katsumasa Chiyo to claim their first GT500 win.
Toyota has traditionally struggled for performance at Suzuka, but Rookie Racing's championship leaders Kenta Yamashita and Kazuya Oshima will be looking to score solid points despite carrying 46kg of ballast.
In the GT300 class, GT3 cars have ruled the roost for the opening two rounds of the season, with Kondo Nissan pair Joao Paulo de Oliveira and Kiyoto Fujinami leading the championship after their win at Okayama ahead of Ryuichiro Tomita and Riki Okusa, who won last time out at Fuji.
Look for Subaru pair Takuto Iguchi and Hideki Yamauchi to make up for a disappointing showing at Fuji in their BRZ around a track that ought to favour the lighter, nimbler GT300-rules cars, as well as the so-called 'Mother Chassis' entries. Likewise, the Max Racing Toyota squad (Atsushi Miyake/Kimiya Sato) will also be hoping to emulate their 2021 success at Suzuka.
SUPER GT time schedule for Suzuka, Round 3
Times are Local/UK time (GMT+1)/EDT/PDT
Saturday May 28
Free practice (1h45 minutes) – 9.25am/1.25am/8.25pm (Friday)/5.25pm (Friday)
Qualifying – 2.45pm/6.45am/1.45am/10.45pm (Friday)
Sunday May 29
Warm-up – 1.10pm/5.10am/12.10am/9.10pm (Saturday)
Race (52 laps) – 2.30pm/6.30am/1.30am/10.30pm (Saturday)
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SUPER GT entry list for Suzuka, Round 3
GT500 class:
Manufacturer | Team | Tyre | No. | Drivers |
---|---|---|---|---|
Nissan Z GT500
| NDDP Racing | Michelin | 3 | Katsumasa Chiyo Mitsunori Takaboshi |
Team Impul | Bridgestone | 12 | Bertrand Baguette Kazuki Hiramine | |
NISMO | Michelin | 23 | Ronnie Quintarelli Tsugio Matsuda | |
Kondo Racing | Yokohama | 24 | Kohei Hirate Daiki Sasaki | |
Toyota GR Supra
| Rookie Racing | Bridgestone | 14 | Kazuya Oshima Kenta Yamashita |
Racing Project Bandoh | Yokohama | 19 | Yuji Kunimoto Sena Sakaguchi | |
TOM’S
| Bridgestone
| 36
| Giuliano Alesi Sho Tsuboi | |
37 | Ritomo Miyata Sacha Fenestraz | |||
Cerumo | Bridgestone | 38 | Hiroaki Ishiura Yuji Tachikawa | |
SARD | Bridgestone | 39 | Yuhi Sekiguchi Yuichi Nakayama | |
Honda NSX-GT (Type S)
| ARTA | Bridgestone | 8 | Tomoki Nojiri Nirei Fukuzumi |
Team Mugen | Dunlop | 16 | Toshiki Oyu Ukyo Sasahara | |
Real Racing | Bridgestone | 17 | Koudai Tsukakoshi Nobuharu Matsushita | |
Nakajima Racing | Dunlop | 64 | Takuya Izawa Hiroki Otsu | |
Team Kunimitsu | Bridgestone | 100 | Naoki Yamamoto Tadasuke Makino |
GT300 class:
No. | Team | Car | Tyre | Drivers |
---|---|---|---|---|
2 | Inging | Toyota GR86 GT | B | Hiroki Katoh Yuui Tsutsumi |
4 | Goodsmile Racing | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | Y | Nobuteru Taniguchi Tatsuya Kataoka |
5 | Team Mach | Toyota 86 MC | Y | Reiji Hiraki Yusuke Tomibayashi |
6 | Team LeMans | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | Y | Yoshiaki Katayama Roberto Merhi |
7 | BMW Team Studie | BMW M4 GT3 | M | Seiji Ara Tsubasa Kondo |
9 | Pacific CarGuy Racing | Ferrari 488 GT3 | Y | Kei Cozzolino Takeshi Kimura |
10 | Gainer | Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 | D | Ryuichiro Tomita Riki Okusa |
11 | Gainer | Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 | D | Hironobu Yasuda Keishi Ishikawa |
18 | Team UpGarage | Honda NSX GT3 | Y | Takashi Kobayashi Kakunoshin Ota |
20 | Shade Racing | Toyota GR86 GT | D | Katsuyuki Hiranaka Eijiro Shimizu |
25 | Team Tsuchiya | Toyota GR Supra GT300 | Y | Takamitsu Matsui Seita Nonaka |
30 | apr | Toyota GR86 GT | Y | Hiroaki Nagai Manabu Orido |
31 | apr | Toyota Prius PHV GR Sport | B | Yuhki Nakayama Koki Saga |
34 | Busou Drago Corse | Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 | D | Masataka Yanagida Yuji Ide |
48 | NILZZ Racing | Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 | Y
| Taiyou Ida Yuya Hiraki |
50 | Arnage Racing | Toyota 86 MC | Y | Ryohei Sakaguchi Ryosei Yamashita |
52 | Saitama Toyopet GB | Toyota GR Supra GT300 | B | Hiroki Yoshida Kohta Kawaai |
55 | ARTA | Honda NSX GT3 | B | Hideki Mutoh Iori Kimura |
56 | Kondo Racing | Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 | Y | Kiyoto Fujinami JP de Oliveira |
60 | LM Corsa | Toyota GR Supra GT300 | D | Hiroki Yoshimoto Shunsuke Kohno |
61 | Subaru/R&D Sport | Subaru BRZ | D | Takuto Iguchi Hideki Yamauchi |
65 | LEON Racing | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | B | Naoya Gamou Takuro Shinohara |
87 | JLOC | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | Y | Kosuke Matsuura Natsu Sakaguchi |
88 | JLOC | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | Y | Takashi Kogure Yuya Motojima |
96 | K-tunes Racing | Lexus RC F GT3 | D | Morio Nitta Shinichi Takagi |
244 | Max Racing | Toyota GR Supra GT300 | Y | Kimiya Sato Atsushi Miyake |
360 | Tomei Sports | Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 | Y | Takayuki Aoki Yusaku Shibata |
Current SUPER GT championship standings
GT500 class:
Pos. | Team/Car | Drivers | Points | Ballast |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Rookie Racing Toyota |
Kazuya Oshima Kenta Yamashita | 23 | 46kg |
2 | Kunimitsu Honda
|
Naoki Yamamoto Tadasuke Makino | 18 | 36kg |
3 | NISMO Nissan | Ronnie Quintarelli Tsugio Matsuda | 15 | 30kg |
4 | TOM'S Toyota | Giuliano Alesi Sho Tsuboi | 12.5 | 25kg |
5 | ARTA Honda |
Tomoki Nojiri Nirei Fukuzumi | 11 | 22kg |
6 | Impul Nissan | Bertrand Baguette Kazuki Hiramine | 9.5 | 19kg |
7 | Cerumo Toyota |
Yuji Tachikawa Hiroaki Ishiura | 8 | 16kg |
8 | NDDP Nissan |
Katsumasa Chiyo Mitsunori Takaboshi | 6 | 12kg |
9 | Bandoh Toyota | Yuji Kunimoto Sena Sakaguchi | 3.5 | 7kg |
10 | SARD Toyota |
Yuhi Sekiguchi Yuichi Nakayama | 3 | 6kg |
11 | Real Racing Honda |
Koudai Tsukakoshi Nobuharu Matsushita | 3 | 6kg |
12 | Kondo Nissan | Kohei Hirate Daiki Sasaki | 1.5 | 3kg |
13 | Mugen Honda | Toshiki Oyu Ukyo Sasahara | 0.5 | 1kg |
GT300 class (top 10):
Pos. | Team/Car | Drivers | Points | Ballast |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Kondo Nissan |
Kiyoto Fujinami JP de Oliveira | 22 | 66kg |
2 | Gainer Nissan |
Ryuichiro Tomita Riki Okusa | 15 | 45kg |
3 | UpGarage Honda |
Takashi Kobayashi Kakunoshin Ota | 15 | 45kg |
4 | LEON Mercedes |
Naoya Gamou Takuro Shinohara | 11 | 33kg |
5 | Subaru |
Takuto Iguchi Hideki Yamauchi | 9.5 | 29kg |
6 | Pacific CarGuy Ferrari |
Kei Cozzolino Naoki Yokomizo | 8 | 24kg |
7 | Drago Corse Nissan | Masataka Yanagida Yuji Ide | 7.5 | 23kg |
8 | LeMans Audi |
Satoshi Motoyama Yoshiaki Katayama | 6 | 18kg |
9 | Gainer Nissan |
Hironobu Yasuda Keishi Ishikawa | 5 | 15kg |
10 | Goodsmile Mercedes |
Nobuteru Taniguchi Tatsuya Kataoka | 4 | 12kg |