2015.05.02

TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT wins GT300 class pole

Round2 Fuji Speedway : Qualifying GT300

On May 2nd, the official qualifying for the FUJI GT 500km Race, Round 2 of the 2015 AUTOBACS SUPER GT was held at Fuji Speedway (Shizuoka Pref.). In the GT500 class, Ronnie Quintarelli in the No. 1 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R won pole position with a new course record time. In the GT300 class, Kota Sasaki in the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT won the class pole. In doing so, Sasaki extended his record for most pole positions by a driver in the GT300 class.

 

The official qualifying of the second round of the series began at 14:15 under fair skies at Fuji Speedway. In the 15-minute Q1 session for the GT300 class, 13 cars would qualify to move on to Q2, while those qualifying 14th and below would have their grid positions determined by their places at the end of Q1.
Although it is common in the GT500 class to have the car waiting the pit through the early minutes of their sessions, most of the cars in the GT300 class take to the track almost as soon as the session starts. The first to make a flying lap seven minutes into the session and record a top time at that point of 1’37.753 was the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC (Takeshi Tsuchiya), a machine using the GT300 class mother chassis. After this, feeling assured of being able to clear the Q1 knock-out line, Tsuchiya returned to the pit with five minutes still remaining in the session (he did eventually clear Q1 in 7th place).
It wasn’t until the last five minutes of the session that this time of car No. 25 was bettered by the winner of the previous round, the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Yuichi Nakayama) with a time of 1’36.519, making it the only car to break the 1’37 barrier. Although machine trouble during the morning practice had prevented car No. 31 from running as normal, this time broke the two-year-old course record for the GT300 class. Then, the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino) moved up into 2nd position on the time board with a lap of 1’37.720. But soon, the 2nd spot was taken by the No. 65 LEON SLS (Haruki Kurosawa) with a time of 1’37.558.
In the closing minutes of the session, the No. 7 Studie BMW Z4 (Jorg Muller) made a time attack as planned with three minutes remaining in Q1. Then the No. 2 SYNTIUM Apple LOTUS (Hiroki Katoh), which was in 10th position at the time, suddenly came to a stop at the second in side of the Dunlop Corner. This brought out the Red Flag to stop the session. The time of No. 2 car that had caused the Red Flag was erased from the records, leaving it at the bottom of Q1.
After car No. 2 was removed from the track, the Q1 session was resumed with five minutes to run. Still lying below the cut-off line for Q2, car No. 7 and the No. 77 KsFrontier Direction Ferrari 458 (Naoki Yokomizo) rushed to make their time attacks. Car No. 7 managed to move up to 10th position (eventually placing 11th) and succeeded in qualifying for Q2. In the process, the No. 33 Excellence Porsche (Alexandre Imperatori) that had been sitting on the cut-off borderline in 13th position was knocked down to 14th place and thus failed to move on to Q2. The No. 77 car also failed to improve its time and ended in 16th position to miss the cut-off.
Also, the No. 88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 (Kazuki Hiramine), which had recorded the 6th fastest time in Q1, was given a penalty for a pit work violation that disqualified its fastest time. However, its second fastest time still left it above the cut-off line in 11th position and enable it to move on to Q2.

 

 

Due to the Red Flag in Q1, the GT300 class Q2 started six minutes behind schedule at 15:06. The 13 cars had 12 minutes to battle for pole position. Perhaps because of the fewer number of cars in this session, the teams took their time getting up to attack pace than they had in Q1. With six minutes remaining in the session, the No. 11 GAINER TANAX SLS (Bjorn Wirdheim) ran the first time in the 1’37 range to move to the top of the time board with a lap of 1’37.564. On its next lap, car No. 11 improved that time to 1’37.318. Then the No. 25 VivaC 86 MC (Takamitsu Matsui) moved into 2nd position on the board with a time of 1’37.736.
The last three minutes of the session brought a rush of times in the 1’37 range, including ones by the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT (Kota Sasaki) and the pole position winner of the previous round, the No. 10 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Katsumasa Chiyo). Then, with two minutes remaining, the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R (Mitsunori Takaboshi) recorded a time of 1’37.028 and looked to be the pole winner.
However, that dream was quickly cut short when Kota Sasaki, who was standing in for the No. 31 team’s regular driver Koki Saga, who was supposed to be participating in the second round of the WEC series this day (eventually the team cancelled participation), turned in the only time of the day to dip under the 1’37 barrier with a time of 1’36.952. In response to this, Takaboshi in car No. 3 ran another attack to try to win back the pole position but fell short of No. 31 Sasaki’s time by a mere 0.076 sec.
This ended the session and gave the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT its third pole position in GT300 competition. For Sasaki, this extended his record for most PPs in the GT300 class to 13.
This puts the winner of the season’s opening round, the No. 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT in the front spot on the grid for tomorrow’s race with a good shot at taking consecutive wins. Qualifying 2nd and 3rd were two GT-R cars, the No. 3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R and No. 10 GAINER TANAX GT-R, and surely they will be looking to turn the tables in the race. Taking the last spot on the second row of the grid was the No. 11 GAINER TANAX SLS.

 

 

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