2019.03.16

[Official test at Okayama: Day 1] CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R gets the fastest of the year! GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG takes the top time in GT300.

Official test: Okayama International Circuit 3/16 (Sat)

2019 With the season-opening Okayama round of AUTOBACS SUPER GT Series approaching in less than a month, the first SUPER GT official test of this year started on March 16 at Okayama International Circuit. 2-hour session was set each in the morning and the afternoon on Day 1. Track surface started out wet in the morning due to snowflakes falling on it previous night, but it gradually dried up as the clock got closer to noon. The afternoon started in a wet condition again with rainfall just before the start of the session, but the track quickly dried up after the rain stopped. Meanwhile, Daiki Sasaki driving No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R marked the top time of both morning and afternoon sessions by being the only driver in the 1 min 17 sec-mark lap time on the field.

 

 

 

Session 1 was delayed by 30 minutes due to snow remaining on the track side from the previous night and started at 10:20AM. Track condition changed from wet to damp with wet and dry mixture and then to dry. Red flag came out three times to suspend the session in the morning after cars going off the track or stopping with a trouble.
Sasaki in No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Daiki Sasaki / James Rossiter) marked 1 min 18.639 sec in the latter half of the session and then 1 min 17.852 sec in the lap right afterward as he continued on. The lap time by Sasaki was even quicker than the track record of Okayama (1 min 18.126 sec) and indeed surprisingly fast as it created a gap of 1.001 sec against the second fastest lap time on the board clocked by No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli).
Although LEXUS LC500 lined up in third to forth positions with No.6 WAKO'S 4CR LC500 (Kazuya Oshima / Kenta Yamashita) and No.39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500 (Heikki Kovalainen / Yuichi Nakayama), the NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT500 squad was showing off their positive situation with No.24 Realize Corporation ADVAN GT-R (Mitsunori Takaboshi / Jann Mardenborough) also placing at fifth fastest. Sixth place by No.8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri / Takuya Izawa) with 1.272 second deficit was the highest position for the Honda NSX-GT fleet.

 

 

Session 2 began from 2:30PM due to the delay of Session 1 start. It opened under a wet condition after rain started to fall just before the start. However, the condition quickly recovered as sunny weather returned. Track surface turned dry in about 30 minutes from the start.
Daiki Sasaki in No.12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R continued to be fast in the afternoon and whipped out 1 min 17.167 sec, which is faster than the best time of the morning session, during the last GT500 exclusive session. This became the fastest lap time of Day 1, of course. No.36 au TOM'S LC500 (Yuhi Sekiguchi) sat at second position with also a record-breaking lap time of 1 min 18.058 sec, but there was still a gap of 0.891 second from Sasaki's time. Seventh place was the best position out of the entire NSX-GT fleet, which was captured by Bertrand Baguette in No.17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi / Bertrand Baguette) lapping at 1 min 18.301 sec.

 

LC500 squad ended up letting the GT-R fleet to march in front of them in Day 1, and Kazumoto Yuasa, General Manager of TECHNOCRAFT Business Div., TOYOTA CUSTOMIZING & DEVELOPMENT Co., Ltd, which leads the development of the race car, shared his view on the situation, "Honda was fast last year, and we put our effort in developing this season's car with an aim to re-claim the title. But, then, Nissans were fast during the offseason test, and, even today, we were more than one second slower than them..." Yuasa showed a bitter smile on his face as he spoke, but he concluded with a strong comment. "Development around aerodynamics parts is limited, but we still proceeded with the development across all dimensions. To be honest, there isn't much we can do to increase the power of the engine, so we worked on improving the driveability so to fully utilize the power. Although the gap was huge today, I think it would be a close battle at the season opener, therefore, we will try to collect good data during the test."
Masahiro Saeki, Project Leader of HRD Sakura, Honda R&D Co., Ltd., who is at the helm of the development of the defending champion NSX-GT, pointed out that there were impacts from temperature, etc. on the day. "Our goal is, of course, winning the series title back to back. For that, we raised our targets higher and worked on the development of the car. Since development targets get higher with this approach, there are some areas where it hasn't actually reached that point (target value) yet, but I don't think we are losing any grounds (to the rivals). Nonetheless, tires are very important factor in SUPER GT and it would be difficult when they don't function sufficiently in low air and track surface temperatures like this time."

 

 

 

Fast-changing situation in GT300 class as top cars changed rapidly. Top time of the morning was marked by Morio Nitta in No.96 K-tunes RC F GT3 (Morio Nitta / Sena Sakaguchi) with 1 min 26.208 sec. No.96 car remained at top in the afternoon also until the final phase of the session, but Tatsuya Kataoka driving No.4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi / Tatsuya Kataoka) passed over by a mere 0.046 second gap with a lap time of 1 min 25.867 sec during the last GT300 exclusive session. The time set by No.4 car became the best lap time of Day 1.

 

 

Top car had created a gap of about a second against the car behind in the GT500 class, but the GT300 class appeared to be a very close field as 16 cars lined up within one second from the top car. It is already making us longing for a fierce battle at the season opening round in Okayama.
Out of the eye-catching new machines, No.7 D'station Vantage GT3 (Tomonobu Fujii / Joao Paulo de Oliveira) was sixth overall of Day 1 with 1 min 26.435 sec and No.720 McLaren 720S (Seiji Ara / Alex Palou) marked 1 min 26.860 sec to place at fifteenth overall of Day 1, which can be a good sign of progress of the new comers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here at Okayama, we brought in a set which we said "This setting" during the manufacturer test at Suzuka and that was a perfect shot, so I think that lead us to a good result. Last year was my first year as a member of IMPUL and also it was a first time for me to try out Bridgestone tires. But this year is my second year and now I'm familiar and got used to many things. However, it's not like I suddenly got quicker, all the effort and difficulties we went through last year brought us the speed. I think we are more capable as a team also. My partner James (Rossiter) has a lot of experience as many veterans do and there are things I can learn from him and his experience, and I think that would make me to drive faster.

 

I'm happy about getting the top time, but, since I cannot see other rivals' (testing) situation, I'm a bit anxious because they can be hiding their claws. [Bitter smile on his face] It's like a war period in GT300 now and fierce battle is anticipated. Everything is same at us, car, driver combination, and also the team staff, so we are just updating as we go in the continuous flow from last year, instead of taking it as a new season. That's why we created a test menu from a perspective of "Why did we lose to Bridgestone (or No.65 car that wore the tires)?" Track surface temperature was low today, especially during the morning session, but we still had a good test for addressing the issue we were facing last year.

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