No. 32 Team WRT BMW on Pole for Suzuka 1000km

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO

The No. 32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO will start Sunday’s Suzuka 1000km from the pole following a best combined effort in qualifying from drivers Raffaele Marciello, Kelvin van der Linde and defending Intercontinental GT Challenge champion Charles Weerts.

The trio recorded a best average of 2:00.658 across the three stop-start 15-minute qualifying sessions, edging out the No. 888 GruppeM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo by 0.518 seconds.

It came after two red flags in Q3, which set up a final three-minute shootout for Weerts to lay down a best time of 2:01.357 after setting unrepresentative times in his two previous attempts due to traffic.

Maxime Martin, Mikael Grenier and Luca Stolz will line up alongside the BMW in second, with the No. 14 Phantom Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II qualifying an impressive third overall and taking pole in the Silver Cup class.

A late flyer by Bastian Buus put the No. 6 Origine Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R fourth on the grid, with the No. 7 Absolute Racing Porsche completing the top-five, despite Patrick Pilet bringing out a red flag in Q3.

However, since Pilet’s fastest qualifying time came after the red flag, his car will retain the starting position.

The Bronze Cup pole-sitting No. 21 Harmony Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 was sixth, ahead of the No. 500 TEAM 5ZIGEN Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 and the sister No. 31 WRT BMW.

The No. 2 Johor Motorsports JMR Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R qualified ninth, despite Nicky Catsburg setting the single quickest time in qualifying, a 1:59.936, as the only driver to break into the sub-two minute barrier.

The No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG, which was second quickest in Bronze and will start tenth overall.

Qualifying was delayed multiple times and ran nearly until 7 p.m. local time, ultimately after three red flags.

Q2 had a red with three minutes and 51 seconds to go when Kevin Tse crashed his No. 28 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG on the entrance to the final chicane due to possible ABS failure.

It came moments after Shigekazu Wakisaka brought his No. 60 LM Corsa Ferrari, which he shares with Giancarlo Fisichella, into the pits with front end damage in a separate incident.

The session restarted with more than a 20-minute delay due to barrier repairs from Tse’s accident, resulting in the remainder of Q2 and the full Q3 session run under darkness.

Q3 saw two additional stoppages, the first when Takuro Shinohara backed his No. 18 Porsche Centre Okazaki Bronze Cup entry into the Turn 1 barriers.

It was followed Pilet’s Porsche, which briefly stopped at Degner but was enough to bring out a red.

The Suzuka 1000km gets underway Sunday at 12:50 p.m. local time (Saturday, 11:50 p.m. EST) with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel.

RESULTS: Qualifying

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John