2022.10.01

Rd. 7 Qualifying　GT500: Sasaki gets his first pole position in the Realize corporation ADVAN Z! The three makers have one car each in qualifying top 3

Round 7 AUTOPOLIS：Qualifying GT500

The official qualifying for the FAV HOTEL AUTOPOLIS GT 300km RACE, Round 7 of the 2022 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, was held at the AUTOPOLIS circuit (lap = 4.674 km) in Oita Pref. on the afternoon of October 1 (Sat.). In the GT500 class, Sasaki in the No. 24 Realize corporation ADVAN Z (Daiki Sasaki/Kohei Hirate) managed to win his personal first pole position. In the GT300 class, the pole position went to the No. 61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi) for the fourth time this season.

 

 

 

　Autopolis was blessed with clear skies from morning on Qualifying day. When the GT500 class qualifying Q1 session started at 3:33 in the afternoon, the air temperature stood at 25℃, but due to the strong sunlight, the track temperature was approaching 40℃. Both the Q1 and Q2 were run as 10-minute sessions, and as usual, none of the GT500 cars took to the track for the first three minutes of the sessions. The first to leave the pit area were the three Honda NSX-GT cars, led by the No. 16 Red Bull MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT (Ukyo Sasahara). Next, it seemed to be the TOYOTA GR Supra GT500 cars that took to the course, to be followed roughly in order by the Nissan Z GT500 cars. As for the No. 17 Astemo NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Nobuharu Matsushita) that had suffered a crash near the end of the morning’s Official Practice, the machine’s damage was repaired in time to take part in Q1, but with only the bare carbon parts (unpainted) showing in the repaired front portion of the car.

　The first car to run a time attack as the session entered its last three minutes was the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi), recording a 1’32.932 lap that would become the target time for the other cars. But just after that, the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi) posted a time of 1’32.097 to beat that target by a large margin and move to the top of the time monitor. As the other 13 GT500 class cars ran their time attacks, the order from 2nd position downward changed rapidly, but none were able to beat the top time held by No. 36. Finishing the Q1 session in 2nd position was the No. 100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto) with a time of 1’32.140. The third fastest time was recorded by the No. 24 Realize corporation ADVAN Z (Kohei Hirate), meaning that each of the three car makers had one machine in the top three.

　As for the current ranking leader, the No. 3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL Z (Mitsunori Takaboshi) and also the 2nd and third ranked No. 12 CALSONIC IMPUL Z (Kazuki Hiramine) and No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Ronnie Quintarelli), as well as the 4th ranked No. 37 KeePer TOM'S GR Supra (Sacha Fenestraz), all of them failed to make the top eight to qualify on to Q2. What’s more, the No. 16 Red Bull MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT (Ukyo Sasahara) that had qualified in 1st position in last season’s round at AUTOPOLIS also failed to move on to Q2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

　The GT500 class Q2 started on schedule at 4:11 in the afternoon. Three minutes after the session’s start, the No. 8 ARTA NSX-GT (Nirei Fukuzumi) and No. 64 Modulo NSX-GT (Takuya Izawa) were the first to take to the track, while the remaining six cars waited to follow at measured intervals. With just under three minutes left in the session, the cars began their time attacks. The first attack came from the car that was fastest in Q1, the No. 36 au TOM'S GR Supra (Giuliano Alesi), recording a lap of 1’32.741. But that time was soon bettered by the No. 100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Tadasuke Makino) with a time of 1’31.867 that moved it to the top position as the only car to break the 1’32 barrier. After that, as in Q1, the order from 2nd position downward shifted between the No. 14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kenta Yamashita), the No. 17 Astemo NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi) and the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto), but none of them were able to break into the 1’31 range. Even as the session entered its final seconds, car No. 100 held on to the top spot.

　After that, the checkered flag was shown, and it was only as Daiki Sasaki in the No. 24 Realize corporation ADVAN Z crossed the finish line at the very end of the session with a time of 1’31.679 that the top time of car No. 100 was finally beaten by a slim margin of just 0.188 sec. This dramatic turnabout moved car No. 24 to the top of the time board.

　 　With this, the only Nissan Z GT500 car to make it to Q2, the No. 24 Realize corporation ADVAN Z (Daiki Sasaki/Kohei Hirate), took their first pole position of the season. For Sasaki, it was his first-ever pole position in SUPER GT. And for the KONDO RACING team, it was their first since Round 6 of the 2017 season at Suzuka.

　Finishing the qualifying in 2nd and 3rd positions respectively were the No. 100 STANLEY NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) and the No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto/Sena Sakaguchi), which meant that, as in Q1, the three makers each had one car in the top three, although in a different order.

 

 

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