Sasaki Leads Nissan 1-2 in Rain-Hit Autopolis Qualifying

Nissan’s pair of works Z NISMOs swept the front row for this weekend’s penultimate round of the SUPER GT season at Autopolis, as Daiki Sasaki grabbed the top spot in the No. 3 car ahead of brand stablemate Katsumasa Chiyo.

In a Q2 pole shootout that took place in wet conditions, Sasaki stunned the field by posting a best lap of 1:39.460 to knock the No. 23 Z of Chiyo off the top spot by 0.385 seconds, taking pole in the NISMO NDDP car he shares with Atsushi Miyake.

It marks Nissan’s first pole of the year and Sasaki’s own first since the summer Fuji round in 2023, when he took the top spot for Kondo Racing.

Behind an all-Nissan front row, Nirei Fukuzumi qualified the title-contending Rookie Racing Toyota GR Supra third, just eight thousandths of a second behind Chiyo, in a potential boost to he and Kazuya Oshima’s championship hopes.

Toshiki Oyu was fourth-fastest in the Cerumo Toyota ahead of Bertrand Baguette’s Team Impul Nissan, while the two TOM’S Toyotas were sixth and seventh in the hands of Giuliano Alesi and Sho Tsuboi respectively.

Tsuboi, who together with his co-driver in the No. 1 GR Supra Kenta Yamashita has a chance to wrap up the championship this weekend, was 2.6 seconds off the pace after mysteriously pitting to change tires in the middle of Q2.

Nakajima Racing was the only Honda team to get through, with Riki Okusa having set the fastest time in Q1 in the dry at the wheel of the rebuilt Dunlop-shod No. 64 Civic Type R-GT, but in the wet Takuya Izawa could only manage eighth.

Likewise, both Yokohama GT500 cars struggled in the wet as Teppei Natori (Kondo Nissan) and Yuji Kunimoto (Bandoh Toyota) brought up the rear in Q2.

All four Bridgestone-shod Hondas were eliminated in Q1, led by the No. 16 ARTA Honda that had been on pole for the previous two races, while Yuhi Sekiguchi ended up 15th and last at the wheel of the SARD Toyota.

Back-to-Back Poles for CarGuy Ferrari in GT300

In the GT300 class, Toyota junior Rikuto Kobayashi made it back-to-back pole positions aboard the No. 7 CarGuy MKS Racing Ferrari 296 GT3.

After co-driver Zak O’Sullivan topped his Q1 group in the dry, Kobayashi topped a Q2 session that took place on a track that was still dry enough for slick tires despite intensifying rain that finally soaked the track in time for the final GT500 session.

Kobayashi left it late to deliver his best lap of 1:43.496 to beat the No. 0 JLOC Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Takashi Kogure by 0.574 seconds.

Yuui Tsutsumi was third-fastest aboard the Inging Toyota GR86 GT ahead of the points-leading LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Naoya Gamou, while a returning Kiyoto Fujinami was fifth in the Seven x Seven Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Several cars had lap times deleted for setting improvements under yellow flags: the Kondo Racing Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 (Kohei Hirate), the Goodsmile Racing Mercedes-AMG (Tatsuya Kataoka) and the Team UpGarage Mercedes-AMG (Yuto Nomura).

Hirate, who lies second in the championship heading into this race, slipped from tenth to 15th as a result, Kataoka from 11th to 13th, and Nomura — who started the session on wet tires before bailing out for slicks — from 15th to 17th.

Kazuki Oki was caught out in the worsening rain late in the session as he suffered a spectacular crash in the Gainer Nissan Z that left the car with severe rear-end damage, although he was promoted from a provisional 16th to 14th.

The works Subaru BRZ that suffered a dramatic engine failure in Q1 while Takuto Iguchi was at the wheel, preventing the car from taking up its spot in Q2, will start 18th.

D’station Racing’s freshly-rebuilt Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo will start a lowly 22nd after Tomonobu Fujii was eliminated in Q1 with only the 11th fastest time in his group.

Sunday’s three-hour race is due to begin at 1:10 p.m. local time (12:10 a.m. EDT).

RESULTS: GT500/GT300