2019.04.13

MOTUL AUTECH GT-R takes pole position with a record-breaking time!

Round 1 Okayama International Circuit : Qualifying GT500

The official qualifying for the OKAYAMA GT 300km RACE, Round 1 of the 2019 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series was held at the Okayama International Circuit (Okayama Prefecture) on April 13. The qualifying brought a rush of new course records by the top teams in both classes, as the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli) won pole position for the GT500 class. In the GT300 class, the No. 55 ARTA NSX GT3 (Shinichi Takagi/Nirei Fukuzumi) won the class pole position.

 

 

 

With clear weather from morning on qualifying day, many teams broke the course record in the morning practice session. After that, however, the skies became cloudy in the afternoon by the time the knock-out style official qualifying began.

The 10-minute GT500 class Q1 qualifying began at 3:18 in the afternoon. In this session, many teams took to the track soon after the session started, led by the LEXUS LC500 cars. Among the competitors, Q1 driver Tadasuke Makino of the No. 64 Modulo Epson NSX-GT was given just five minutes (half the normal time) to run his timed laps as a penalty for the team’s crash in the morning practice.

As the other teams used most of the session’s ten minutes to carefully warm up their tires before running their timed laps, most began their flying laps in the last two minutes of the session. The first to top the time board in those final laps was the No. 24 REALIZE CORPORATION ADVAN GT-R (Jann Mardenborough), with a time of 1’17.333 that bettered the fastest time from the morning practice. After that, the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Takuya Izawa) rose to second position on the time board with a lap of 1’17.879. The No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda) would soon beat No. 24’s time with a 1’17.165 lap, only to see the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (James Rossiter) move into the top spot immediately after with a time of 1’17.103. This put three NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT500 cars in the top three spots. What’s more, the No. 3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL GT-R (Kohei Hirate), which comes to this season opener with an all-new roster of drivers, managed a time of 1’17.874 so that all four of the GT-Rs qualified for Q2.
The winner of last year’s opening round at Okayama, the No. 17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Bertrand Baguette) finished the session in 4th position with a time of 1’17.579. Following in 5th position was last year’s champion team, the No. 1 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Jenson Button). Meanwhile, the LEXUS LC500 teams were struggling to improve their times, and only the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S LC500 (Ryo Hirakawa) managed to qualify for Q2 with an 8th-place time of 1’17.906.

 

 

After the GT300 class Q2 finished, the 10-minute GT500 class Q2 session began. In GT500 Q2 sessions until now the cars wouldn’t leave the pit until about three minutes after the session started, but this time, perhaps out of concern to thoroughly warm up their tires, No. 17 KEIHIN NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi) entered the track with 8 min. 30 sec. remaining in the 10-min. session. By the time seven minutes remained in the session, all of the teams had left the pits and started their warm-ups.

Then, with 1’40 sec. remaining in the session, the No. 1 RAYBRIG NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto) entered its flying lap and ran a time of 1’16.950. This was a big improvement over last year’s record lap time (1’18.129), and it went without saying this amazing time in the 1’16 range put car No. 1 in top spot on the time board. The next car to cross the control line was the No. 17, with a time of 1’17.088 that gave the Honda NSX-GT a 1-2 hold on the top positions. But then it was the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R’s (Ronnie Quintarelli) turn to grab the top spot with a time of 1’16.602, which put it 0.3480 sec. faster than car No. 1. Next, it was the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (Daiki Sasaki) that came home with a lap of 1’16.876 that beat car No. 1’s time but fell short of car No. 23’s time. With this, the GT-Rs came out of the session with a 1-2 finish.

This final reverse of the top spot by the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R gave the team its first pole position since Round 5 of last year’s series at FUJI. For Quintarelli, it was his 12th GT500 career pole position. Following the top two GT-Rs cam the No. 17 KEIHIN NSX-GT, No. 1 RAYBRIG NSX-GT and the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri). The only LC500 in Q2, the No. 37 KeePer TOM'S LC500 (Nick Cassidy) managed to improve the team’s time to 1’17.693, which put it in 7th position.

 

 

Tomorrow’s April 14th race will start with two GT-Rs, the No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R and the No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R, monopolizing the front row of the starting grid. By right behind them, the NSX-GT cars will be looking to reverse the table when the race starts, and with the weather forecast as unpredictable, there may be a chance for the others, including of course the LC500 cars, to battle for the win.

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