Craft-Bamboo Tops Suzuka Qualifying, Ford to Start on Pole

Craft-Bamboo Racing’s No. 77 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo topped qualifying for this weekend’s Suzuka 1000km, but due to a grid penalty the Ford Mustang GT3 EVO of Miedecke Motorsport/Team MPC is set to start Sunday’s race from pole.

Saturday evening’s three-part qualifying was dominated by the taxi-liveried car shared by Luca Stolz, Maxime Martin and Kaku Ohta, helped by Ohta and Stolz topping their respective segments for an average time of 1:58.696, 0.581 seconds clear of the field.

The fastest individual time was set by Honda factory ace Ohta, a 1:58.455, but a three-place grid drop for speeding during a red flag means the car will drop to fourth.

Instead, the No. 64 Mustang GT3 EVO of Chris Mies, Fred Vervisch and Dennis Olsen is poised to begin the fourth round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge season from the top spot after setting an average time of 1:59.277.

Mies was the fastest of the trio, going third-fastest in Q1 behind PONOS Racing Ferrari driver Seita Nonaka and Martin, while Olsen was fourth in Q2 and Vervisch was 13th in Q3, producing a lap good enough to eclipse the PONOS car by 0.035 seconds.

Nonaka and his co-drivers in the No. 45 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, Tadasuke Makino and Takuro Shinohara, are poised to join the Mustang on the front row, while the No. 7 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo, fourth on the averages, is set to move up to third with Dorian Boccolacci, Ayhancan Guven and Alessandro Ghiretti.

Fifth-fastest was the sister ‘Bushi Rex’-themed No. 8 Absolute Porsche, but a two-place grid drop for failing to display the car during the pit walk is set to drop Laurin Heinrich, Alessio Picariello and Julien Andlauer down to eighth on the grid.

That is set to promote the best of the Bronze class runners, the No. 89 Team KRC BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Maxime Oosten, Max Hesse and Tony Ruan to fifth.

KRC edged out fellow BMW squad Team WRT for the honor of top Bronze class car, but Anthony McIntosh, Parker Thompson and Dan Harper are set to fall down to 12th on the grid after a five-place drop for Thompson speeding under red flags.

Both Nissan and Corvette are set to have their respective Pro entries starting in the top eight, with the Team 5ZIGEN Nissan GT-R  NISMO GT3 set to jump from ninth on average times to sixth and the No. 2 Johor Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R poised to move up to eighth after qualifying tenth.

Best of the Pro-Am cars was the No. 60 LM Corsa Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella, Kei Nakanishi and Shigekazu Wakisaka in 14th overall.

Porsche Centre Okazaki’s No. 18 Porsche, which had Hibiki Taira behind the wheel at the time, caused a red flag late on in Q2 when it came to a stop at Degner Curve with its engine spitting out flames that were quickly brought under control.

The sole Am car in the field, the Tomei Sports Nissan, did not take part in qualifying following Atsushi Tanaka’s crash in pre-qualifying earlier in the day that has left the team scrambling to build up a new car around a spare chassis.

The Suzuka 1000km is due to begin Sunday 12:50 p.m. local time (Saturday at 11:50 p.m. EST), and will conclude after six and a half hours regardless of distance covered.

RESULTS: Qualifying