2010 SUPER GT Round5

Qualifying #1 Weather:Fine | Course:Dry | Air Temp. 32°C | Track Temp. 43°C
SUPER LAP Weather:Fine | Course:Dry | Air Temp. 32°C | Track Temp. 43°C

Treluyer fast in a brutally hot qualifying

The official qualifying for this round was held in a Super Lap format. The eight fastest cars in the first qualifying session won the right to compete in the second session (Super Lap) in which the cars run a single time attack (timed lap) one by one. The times in the Super Lap determines the grid positions for the top eight cars, with the positions of the cars from 9th downward decided by their times from first qualifying session.
The first qualifying session started at 12:45. The session began in extremely hot conditions with an air temperature of the was 32 degrees C. and the track temperature of 43 C. Plans called for the first 25 minutes of the session to be for both the GT500 and GT300 classes running together, with the following ten minutes exclusively for the GT300 class and the last ten minutes for the GT500 class. However, just before the end of the initial 25-minute joint running time, a car came to a stop at trackside, bringing out the Red Flag to stop the session. What's more, another car ran off the course near the end of the GT300 class's 10-minute session, which brought out the Red Flag and delayed the qualifying again.
The eight cars in the GT500 class that qualified for the Super Lap in the first session were, in order, the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Benoit Treluyer), the No. 100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 (Takuya Izawa), the No. 8 ARTA HSV-010 (Ralph Firman), the No. 18 Weider HSV-010 (Takashi Kogure), the No. 6 ENEOS SC430 (Bjorn Wirdheim), the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda), the No. 32 EPSON HSV-010 (Ryo Michigami) and the No. 35 MJ KRAFT SC430 (Kazuya Oshima). After running the fastest time in the morning practice, Treluyer in car No. 23 again scored the fastest time in the first qualifying session, although the gap narrowed slightly.
The GT500 class Super Lap began at 15:50 with Oshima in car No. 35 as the first runner. He improved significantly on his first-session time with a 1 min. 16.747 sec. lap that then became the time to beat. The next three runners were unable to break the 1 min. 17 sec. barrier and it wasn't until the fifth runner, Kogure in car the No. 18 that another driver was able to dip into the 1 min. 16 sec. range, but he fell short of Oshima's (No. 35) time by 0.027 sec. and had to settle for 2nd place in the order at that point. Firman in car No. 8 was able to run under 1 min. 17 sec. but only managed to take 3rd position behind Kogure.
It was the first session's 2nd fastest qualifier, Izawa in car No. 100 who was finally able to better Oshima's time and take the tentative lead. Although he was slightly slower than Oshima (No. 35) and Kogure (No. 18) over the first two sectors of the course, a third sector time in the low 34 sec, range gave him a time of 1 min. 16.622 sec.
Next, the final runner, Treluyer in car No.23, made his time attack. Over sector one he was the only driver to dip under 41 sec. This already gave him a 0.2 sec. advantage over the competition, but on the second sector he also recorded the fastest time and went on to finish with a time of 1 min. 16.178 sec. and take his first pole position of the season with an impressive 0.4 sec. margin over the field.
Qualifying 2nd was No. 100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 (Takuya Izawa). Following in 3rd position was the No. 35 MJ KRAFT SC430 (Kazuya Oshima), thus giving Nissan, Honda and Toyota each a spot in the top three.

No.2 Apple·K-ONE·Shiden

Emergence of the EVANGELION RT TEST TYPE-01 apr COROLLA

In the GT300 class, the first qualifying session saw a fierce rush of time attacks in the last five minutes of their designated 10-minute period, but they were cut short when the No. 3 HASEMI SPORT TOMICA Z (Kazuki Hoshino) ran off the track coming out of the SP curve. Because it hit the barrier cushion, the Red Flag came out and that eventually ended the session. This prevented the teams that were about to make their final attack from improving their times and enabled the eight teams with the fastest times up to that point to advance to the Super Lap, led by the No. 2 Apple·K-ONE·Shiden (Haruki Katoh).
Katoh in car No. 2 made another impressive time attack in the Super Lap, improving on his first-session time by more than 0.3 seconds to record a time of 1 min. 24.082 sec. and win the class pole. This extended Katoh's own record for most pole positions by a driver in the GT300 class to ten.
The second fastest time in the GT300 class Super Lap was run by the No. 31 EVANGELION RT TEST TYPE-01 apr COROLLA (Koki Saga). This is the best finish ever for car No. 31.
The 3rd fastest qualifier was the No. 43 ARTA Garaiya (Shinichi Takagi). This was a fine performance considering the fact that they had barely managing to finishing 8th in the first session and qualify for the Super Lap.
Qualifying 4th was the class pole winner from round 4 in Sepang, the No. 11 JIMGAINER DIXEL DUNLOP F430. Katsuyuki Hiranaka was the team's driver this time for the qualifying and he was able to finish 4th in the first session and the Super Lap.
Qualifying 5th was the No. 7 M7 MUTIARA MOTORS AMEMIYA SGC 7 (Nobuteru Taniguchi), followed by the No. 74 COROLLA Axio apr GT (Takuto Iguchi) in 6th and the No. 19 WedsSport IS350 (Tatsuya Kataoka) in 7th. Barely managing to qualify for the Super Lap in 8th position was the No. 46 UP START MOLA Z (Naoki Yokomizo) that presently shares the ranking lead with car No. 7.
Meanwhile, the No. 666 BOMEX LIAN BOXSTER suffered trouble in its drive shaft during the first qualifying session that brought it to a stop on the track. This prevented its driver Junichiro Yamashita from getting a qualifying time and left it until tomorrow's morning free practice results to determine whether or not the team can compete in the race.