2016.11.13

DENSO KOBELCO SARD RC F takes pole for the final round with eyes on the title

Round8 Twin Ring Motegi : Qualifying GT500 Review

The official qualifying for the MOTEGI GT GRAND FINAL, Round 8 (final round) of the 2016 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was run at Twin Ring Motegi (Tochigi Pref.) on the morning of November 13 (Sun.). The GT500 class pole position went to the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD RC F driven by Kohei Hirate, which had finished 2nd in yesterday’s race to move to the top of the season ranking. In the GT300 class, the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT driven by Yuichi Nakayama won the class pole. Both of these two machines won their respective class pole with new Motegi course record times.

 

 

Twin Ring Motegi was blessed with clear skies and refreshing autumn weather this day. The 15-minute GT500 class qualifying session began at 9:05 in the morning with a completely dry track. For this final Round 8 race, all of the GT500 class cars were able to run with no handicap weight load. According to a supplementary regulation specially imposed for this race, the driver on each team that didn’t drive in yesterday’s Round 3 qualifying had to drive in this Round 8 qualifying session.

Just after the course was opened for the GT500 class qualifying session, the first to move was the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Ronnie Quinarelli) that had lost the series ranking lead after round 3. But, the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R would immediately return to the pit again once. After that, with just under 11 minutes remaining in the session, the No. 24 Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R (Masataka Yanagida) took to the track, followed by the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN RC F (Yuji Kunimoto) and the No. 64 Epson NSX CONCEPT-GT (Daisuke Nakajima).
The teams using Bridgestone and Michelin tires began to move in earnest with about 8 min. 30 sec. remaining in the session. One after another the cars went out on the track and began their warm-ups in order to begin making their serious time attacks with about three minutes remaining in the session.
The No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R was first to record a target time with a 1’38.111 lap. With this, Quintarelli had immediately broken his own Motegi GT500 class course record. Next to record a fast time was the No. 46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama).
However, the Lexus cars would soon be eclipsing the times of these Nissan machines. The No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD RC F (Kohei Hirate) that had moved to the top of the ranking following Saturday’s Round 3 race beat the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R’s time by a big margin with a time of 1’37.115. Then, the No. 6 WAKO'S 4CR RC F (Andrea Cardarelli) beat that time with a stunning time of 1’36.776.

 

 

Next to record fast times and give the Lexus cars a monopoly on the top four positions on the time board were the No. 36 au TOM'S RC F (Daisuke Ito) and the No. 38 ZENT CERUMO RC F (Hiroaki Ishiura). Although the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda) was able to break into that top four with a time of 1’37.144, there was still time for more trials.
Commenting later that he ran with a vengeance because of the feeling that the GT-R was beating them, Hirate outran the No. 6 WAKO'S 4CR RC F’s time on his next lap with a time of 1’36.491. After that, the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S RC F (James Rossiter) also improved on his best time but fell 0.283 sec. short of Hirate’s time. This meant that the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD RC F had taken the pole positions and brought his team one big step closer to the championship title.
Qualifying in 3rd position was the No. 6 WAKO'S 4CR RC F, while 4th position went to the No.1 9 WedsSport ADVAN RC F, giving the Lexus cars a sweep of the top four positions. The No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R qualified in 5th position. The top finisher among the Honda NSX CONCEPT-GT cars was the No. 17 KEIHIN NSX CONCEPT-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi) in 10th position.
Meanwhile, although he continued his attacks until the checkered flag lap, Quintarelli in the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R was only able to qualify in 9th position. With the strong contingent of Lexus RC F cars sitting in the top positions, this would make it very difficult for the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R to succeed in a come-from-behind title win in the race later in the day.

As the current leader in the season ranking for the Drivers Championship, No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD RC F got another series point for winning pole position, which eliminated the eighth ranked No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda/ Joao Paulo Lima De Oliveira) team’s chance of winning the title. It is now only the top seven teams in the ranking that retained any chance of winning the title.

 

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