Qualifying

In Q1, Igor Omura Fraga in #64 Modulo focused on warming up his tyres from the moment the track opened until his final lap. He then set the fastest time of 1m45.254s, comfortably topping the session. The other three Honda HRC PRELUDE-GTs also advanced to Q2. Meanwhile, #100 STANLEY, which had suffered an engine problem in the morning’s free practice session, underwent an engine change before Tadasuke Makino took part in Q1. However, the car was unable to show its full potential and finished at the bottom of the Q1 standings.

In Q2, Riki Okusa in #64 Modulo initially went quickest with a 1m45.206s before Yuto Nomura in #17 Astemo improved on that by 0.077s with a 1m45.129s. Ren Sato in #16 ARTA MUGEN was also on a lap that looked set to beat Nomura’s time, but ran wide at Spoon Curve and lost time, recording a 1m45.389s to go P3 behind #64 Modulo. However, the lap time was deleted for leaving the track with all four wheels during the off-track moment, dropping Sato behind #8 HRC ARTA MUGEN (Kakunoshin Ohta), which had recorded a 1m45.504s.

The Honda HRC PRELUDE-GTs will start the race from P1, P2, P3 and P4 on the grid, improving on their top-three qualifying lockout at the previous round at Fuji.

GT500 Qualifying Result