ARTA Leads Honda 1-2-3 in Fuji Qualifying

Honda locked out the top three positions in qualifying for this weekend’s Fuji SUPER GT round, as ARTA pair Tomoki Nojiri and Nobuharu Matsushita scored pole.

Nojiri and Matsushita’s combined efforts at the wheel of the No. 8 Honda Civic Type R-GT produced an aggregate lap time of 2:56.359, enough to take the top spot by 0.318 seconds from Team Kunimitsu Honda duo Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino.

It marked Honda’s second pole of the season with the brand-new Civic, the first one having come in the second round at Fuji in May.

Makino had been fastest in Q1 with a time of 1:28.026, with Matsushita third-fastest in that session behind the Dunlop-shod Nakajima Honda of Riki Okusa.

But come Q2, Nojiri was able to outpace his opposite number in the No. 100 Kunimitsu car, Yamamoto, the tune of nearly half a second.

Taking over the Nakajima car from Okusa, Takuya Izawa booked third on the grid behind the top two cars, both of which use Bridgestone tires.

Best of the rest was the No. 38 Cerumo Toyota GR Supra, which had only been seventh-quickest in the hands of Hiroaki Ishiura in Q1 but vaulted up to fourth place thanks to Toshiki Oyu setting the second-best time in Q2.

Completing the top five was the Real Racing Honda of Koudai Tsuakoshi and Kakunoshin Ohta, while top Nissan was the Impul machine of Kazuki Hiramine and Bertrand Baguette which had been fourth after Q1 but slipped to sixth on aggregate.

Another car to lose major ground in Q2 was the No. 16 ARTA Honda of Hiroki Otsu and Ren Sato, which ended up 10th despite Otsu setting the fifth-best time in Q1.

The two NISMO Nissans struggled to 11th and 12th places, the No. 23 leading the No. 3 that sits second in the championship and is one of three cars carrying a fuel flow restrictor as part of its success handicap this weekend.

Both the TOM’S Toyotas, also carrying restrictors, propped up the order, with the championship-leading No. 36 car in 14th ahead of the Suzuka-winning No. 37.

LEON Racing Mercedes Beats JLOC to GT300 Pole

In the GT300 class, Naoya Gamou put the No. 65 LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo on pole for the second time this season.

With the aggregate qualifying being scrapped for the lower class at the last moment owing to an oil spill in the earlier Japanese Formula 4 race, only the times in Q2 counted for the grid order, with Q1 only serving to determine the 16 cars fighting for pole.

Takuro Shinohara had been second-fastest in his Q1 group in the LEON Mercedes, but come the pole shootout Gamou turned in a lap of 1:37.764 to beat Natsu Sakaguchi in the No. 87 JLOC Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 by 0.051 seconds.

The No. 87 car had only been shaken down on Saturday morning during practice after the team finally took delivery of a second EVO2-spec car on Thursday.

Tatsuya Kataoka left it late to put the Goodsmile Racing Mercedes-AMG third, ahead of the Suzuka-winning D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Charlie Fagg, although teammate Tomonobu Fujii had been fastest of all in Q1.

Subaru’s works BRZ meanwhile ended up down in a disappointing ninth despite Hideki Yamauchi topping his Q1 group.

The championship-leading Inging Toyota GR86 GT shared by Hibiki Taira and Yuui Tsutsumi failed to make the ‘Upper 16’ pole shootout, and was left to scrap it out for a maximum of 17th on the grid.

Tsutsumi lost that particular battle to the UpGarage Honda NSX GT3 Evo22, leaving he and Taira starting down in 18th place.

RESULTS: GT500/GT300 (1-16)/GT300 (17-27)