Sato Scores Back-to-Back Poles for Honda at Sugo

ARTA Honda driver Ren Sato delivered the team’s second consecutive pole position in qualifying for this weekend’s sixth round of the season at Sportsland Sugo.

Still carrying only 18 kg of success ballast aboard the No. 16 Honda Civic Type R-GT after the team’s disappointing run from pole to fourth at Suzuka, Sato established a new track record with a best time in Q2 of 1:09.122 in the car he shares with Hiroki Otsu.

That put him 0.446 seconds clear of his nearest rival Sacha Fenestraz, whose co-driver in the SARD Toyota GR Supra, Yuhi Sekiguchi, had been fastest in Q1.

Making it three different manufacturers in the top three was Daiki Sasaki in the works No. 3 Nissan Z NISMO, just 0.018 seconds slower than Fenestraz.

Kenta Yamashita shrugged off a nominal 100 kg handicap, including a stage-three fuel flow restrictor, to qualify fourth aboard the No. 1 TOM’S Toyota, putting he and co-driver Sho Tsuboi in an ideal position to stretch their points lead.

Two more Nissans were next, the Yokohama-shod Kondo Racing car the best of the non-Bridgestone cars in fifth thanks to Teppei Natori, ahead of Suzuka winner Katsumasa Chiyo in the No. 23 NISMO car and Toshiki Oyu’s Cerumo Toyota.

Fastest in a rain-impacted morning practice session, the Real Racing Honda was a disappointing eighth-fastest with Koudai Tsukakoshi at the wheel, while Kazuya Oshima was only ninth in the Rookie Racing Toyota that lies second in the standings.

ARTA’s No. 8 Honda dropped out in Q1 and will start 11th, while two other cars equipped with stage-one restrictors, the Team Impul Nissan and the Team Kunimitsu Honda, will start from the back in 14th and 15th respectively.

CarGuy MKS Ferrari Continues Momentum With Pole

In the GT300 class, Rikuto Kobayashi delivered CarGuy MKS Racing its first pole position after a thrilling battle against the LM Corsa Lexus LC500 of Hiroki Yoshimoto, following on from the newly-formed team’s first win last time out at Suzuka.

After Zak O’Sullivan topped his Q1 group aboard the No. 7 Ferrari 296 GT3, Kobayashi took over duties for Q2 and annexed the top spot with a best time of 1:16.968.

That was enough to dislodge Yoshimoto, in the non-hybrid Lexus that was stripped of its second-place finish at Suzuka, by just 0.019 seconds.

JLOC’s No. 0 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 enjoyed its best performance of what has been a difficult title defense so far in third with Takashi Kogure driving, ahead of the Goodsmile Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Tatsuya Kataoka.

Also enjoying an upturn in form was the hybrid No. 31 Lexus of Miki Koyama in sixth place, just behind the title-contending Inging Toyota GR Supra GT of Yuui Tsutsumi.

LEON Racing’s points-leading Mercedes-AMG was eighth-fastest, two places ahead of its nearest rival, the D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo that didn’t turn a single competitive lap in practice amid electronic gremlins.

Not participating in qualifying at all was the Shade Racing Toyota GR86 GT that was struck in practice by engine-related trouble. The team revealed on social media it would perform an engine change in time for the race.

The 300km Sugo race is due to begin Sunday 1:30 p.m. local time (12:30 a.m. EDT).

RESULTS: GT500/GT300