2017.07.01

[Official test at Suzuka: Day 2] WedsSport ADVAN LC500 clocks Top time! Ferrari 488 GT3 fastest in GT300

Official test : Suzuka Circuit 7/1 (Sat)

SUPER GT's official test continued on from previous day for Day2 at Suzuka Circuit on July 1st. Previous day started with rain from the morning at Suzuka Circuit, but Day 2 opened up with a fair condition with just thin clouds extending over sky. Two sessions were held on the day and No.19 WedsSport ADVAN LC500 (Yuhi Sekiguchi / Yuji Kunimoto / Kamui Kobayashi) marked the fastest lap time of GT500 class with 1 min 48.975 sec. In GT300 class, No.50 Ferrari 488 GT3 marked the best lap time of the class. Many teams carried out a long-run test for Round 6 Suzuka 1000km in the afternoon session, and the atmosphere is surely growing for a heated battle at the real stage.

 

 

 

LC500 and GT-R turnaround from previous day showing good runs! WedsSport ADVAN LC500 marking top time.

GT-R squad was in high gear from early part of the session and their lap times got better a lap after lap. With Matsuda driving No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli) at the lead followed by Mardenborough in No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda / Jann Mardenborough) and Chiyo in No.46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama / Katsumasa Chiyo), GT-Rs were lined up in the top 3 positions with a lap time around the 1 min 49 sec mark.

At about 1 hour 10 minutes into the session, Mardenborough at the wheel of No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R went off the track at Degner. Red flag was presented for the incident which brought the session to the first suspension of the day. Session resumed in about 10 minutes. Soon after the resumption, Sekiguchi in No.19 WedsSport ADVAN LC500 (Yuhi Sekiguchi / Yuji Kunimoto/ Kamui Kobayashi) bettered the lap times of GT-R squad. Sekiguchi struck out a slightly faster lap time then 1 min 48.988 sec by No.23 car, 1 min 48.975 sec. The lap time eventually became the best time of the morning session. GT-R squad was in a chain from second to fourth positions with No.23 (driven only by Matsuda), No.12 (lap time by Mardenborough), and No.46 (driven only by Chiyo) cars, and No.17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi / Takashi Kogure. Lap time by Tsukakoshi) was at fifth place.

 

 

Teams mainly focusing on long-runs. ZENT CERUMO LC500 clocks best time among the pack.

Similar to previous official test at SUGO, the afternoon session was extended by an hour to a long three-hour session from usual two hours for both Day 1 and 2. With the test in afternoon being in the same hours of day and at the same circuit as the simulating race (Round 6 Suzuka for this time), many teams were working on trying various types of tires to check the durability and grip and shortlist the tires for the real race in long-run testing simulating the race.
A GT300 car span out at Degner at around one hour from the start. No.46 S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R driven by Motoyoma also came to a stop due to a problem on the car with less than 20 minutes remaining in the session. Session was red flagged two times in total.
It seemed that there was no full-fledged attack lap taken during the session, and the best lap time settled at 1 min 49.976 sec marked by Tachikawa in No.38 ZENT CERUMO LC500 (Yuji Tachikawa / Hiroaki Ishiura) in the earlier time of the session. "Will not use it (Tire used when the best lap time was marked) in the race and other teams were probably doing long-runs, so it doesn't mean anything to get the (best) lap time." Ishiura was cool in his comment.

 

No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Lap time by Mardenborough) and No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Lap time by Quintarelli) carried on with the momentum from the morning and followed the top with a small gap behind at second and third positions, respectively, and, with No.1 DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500 (Heikki Kovalainen / Kohei Hirate. Lap time by Hirate) also at fourth position, the top places were shared by LC500 and GT-R. Fastest time among the NSX-GT fleet was 1 min 50.534 sec, sixth overall, marked by No.8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri / Takashi Kobayashi). The test simulating the race of Round 6 Suzuka ended with eight cars crowding within only 0.8 second from the top and that shoots up everybody’s expectation for seeing a heated battle at the real race.
Jenson Button (No.8 MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT) and Kamui Kobayashi (No.19 WedsSport ADVAN LC500), who were taking part in the test to get prepared for their first SUPER GT participation as a third driver at Suzuka 1000km, seemed to be trying to get extended laps in the car during the day. After the session, Kamui commented, "I was able to drive (more no. of laps) if I compare with yesterday and I got better understanding of the car. But, actually, I wanted to drive more. Anyways, I will do my best to do my job at the real race."

 

 

 

 

Ferrari and Mercedes AMG at top of GT300 in morning and afternoon. Mark X third fastest of morning.

FIA GT3 cars continued to show good performance like from the previous day on the Day 2 of official test at Suzuka. Top time of the morning session was 1 min 59.636 sec marked by Nitta at the wheel of No.50 Ferrari 488 GT3 (Akihiro Tsuzuki / Morio Nitta). Behind the Ferrari, No.88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 (Manabu Orido / Kazuki Hiramine / Koji Yamanishi. Lap time by Hiramine) and No.52 SAITAMA TOYOPET GreenBrave MARK X MC (Taku Bamba / Shigekazu Wakisaka. Lap time by Wakisaka) followed at second and third positions, respectively. Team staff of No.52 car with an impressive lap time explained his outlook on the upcoming race, "It's still far away from calling it enough, but the team as a whole has improved and we found a good standard set of tires."

In the afternoon session, No.4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (driven only by Tatsuya Kataoka on Day 2) marked the top time with 1 min 59.973 sec. No.5 MACH SYAKEN MC86 GTNET (Natsu Sakaguchi / Kiyoto Fujinami / Tetsuji Tamanaka. Lap time by Sakaguchi) and No.33 D'station Porsche (Tomonobu Fujii / Sven Muller. Lap time by Muller) were the second and third fastest among the pack, respectively.
No.3 B-MAX NDDP GT-R canceled the run on Day 2 due to a problem in the car. No.25 VivaC 86 MC (driven only by Takamitsu Matsui) also appeared to have some problems in the brake and barely ran on the track.

 

    

 

 

Suzuka test was also filled with various events. Birthday bash for Team manager Hoshino.

Day 2 of the official test at Suzuka had a wide variety of events other than testing sessions which entertained over 10,000 fans that gathered at the venue. Fans enjoyed a ride in Circuit Safari after the morning session and more than 500 people filled up the floor during the lunchtime interval at a talkshow starring Jenson Button (No.16 MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT), who will be racing at Round 6 Suzuka.

 

    

 

In addition, a birthday bash was held during the open pit at noon for Team manager Kazuyoshi Hoshino of No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R and a surprise message was displayed on Leader's Tower, which usually displays the racing order, "Happy Birthday Team manager Hoshino." ARTA Kids Meeting was also held after the afternoon session in front of the Grandstand hosting a grand talkshow with a Team manager Aguri Suzuki and ARTA drivers.
Two-day testing came to an end in exciting and joyful atmosphere. In next two months, SUPER GT will have midsummer triple races starting from the fourth round of the series at Sportsland SUGO in three weeks on July 22nd and 23rd.

 

    

 

    

 

 

We cannot use the tires we used when I marked the top time today at Suzuka 1000km because it will be too hot. Why did we test such tires?　Because when we were in the process of developing our car trying many different things, we were using tires with the same rubber throughout the various tests we did. So, the top time today doesn't mean that much. But we found good sets and some good tires from continuously doing test from last time at Suzuka (tire maker test), SUGO (official test), and this test.
But I think other LC500s were carrying handicap weights, so simply comparing the lap time (is useless)... Anyways, we are a part of the LC500 fleet that has been doing well from the season opener, so we definitely need to come back strong at the next race at SUGO and then on to Fuji and Suzuka 1000km.

 

The balance of the car was good. I believe we can still go more in terms of lap time. It was hard up to here because we struggled with problems. This car is surprisingly sensitive and, for example, the tire pressure sensor sends "low pressure" signal and that will show on the whole area of LCD screen, and you can't be doing an attack lap from there. But, on the other hand, you can't cut the circuit either...
The reason why we couldn't get the lap time out until now is because, instead of attacking with new tires, we did long miles with used tires to work on the setup as well as to give more practice (time) to the drivers. That's why we get pretty decent lap time if we attacked with new tires. Today's lap time was not at the limit either, it felt like there is still some more buffer and I could push a little bit more.

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