Fuji SUPER GT: Bandoh Toyota on pole for Golden Week enduro

While the two Bridgestone-shod TOM’S Toyotas dominated the first leg of qualifying at the Shizuoka Prefecture circuit, it was the Bandoh team that rose to the top in the crucial pole shootout with its sole Yokohama-shod GR Supra.

Sakaguchi set a time of 1m26.137s in the #19 Toyota with just a minute to go in the session, securing the Bandoh team back-to-back pole positions in the Fuji enduro by three tenths of a second.

Two-time GT500 champion Kohei Hirate underlined the one-lap pace of the Yokohama tyre by claiming second in the Kondo Nissan, ahead of the #3 NISMO-entered Z car of Mitsunori Takaboshi on Michelin tyres.

Tomoki Nojiri was the top qualifier for Honda and Bridgestone in fourth in the ARTA NSX Type S, missing out on a front row spot by just 0.013s.

The two TOM’S Toyotas had to settle for fifth and sixth, with the #37 car of Sacha Fenestraz qualifying ahead of Giuliano Alesi - whose teammate Sho Tsuboi topped Q1 with a time of 1m26.301s.

Yuji Tachikawa was seventh in the Cerumo Toyota, while Naoki Yamamoto could only manage the eighth-quickest time in the Kunimitsu Honda that finished second at Okayama.

Hobbled with 40kg of ballast, Kenta Yamashita missed the Q2 cut by just 0.041s in the Rookie Racing Toyota that claimed victory in the Okayama season opener a fortnight ago, and will have to line up ninth on the grid.

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Two of the four Nissans were also knocked out in Q1, with the Impul Nissan of Kazuki Hiramine qualifying 10th ahead of the #23 NISMO of double champion Tsugio Matsuda.

Fresh off his maiden Super Formula win less than a fortnight ago, Nobuharu Matsushita qualified a disappointing 12th in the Real Racing Honda, ahead of the two Dunlop-shod NSX-GT Type S cars of Ukyo Sasahara (Mugen) and Hiroki Otsu (Nakajima Racing).

SARD Toyota driver Yuichi Nakayama was unlucky to find traffic on his final flying lap and will prop up the 15-car GT500 grid, ending qualifying nearly three seconds off the pace.

UPDATE: Several laptimes were scrapped for track limits abuses, leading to a small reshuffle of grid positions.

The ARTA Honda team slips from fourth to fifth as a result of Tomoki Nojiri losing his best time, while Giuliano Alesi was also stripped of his quickest lap, dropping the #36 TOM'S Toyota from sixth to eighth.

Yuji Tachikawa suffered a similar fate but his second-best laptime was good enough to not cost the Cerumo Toyota any positions, instead gaining one at the expense of Alesi.

Nobuharu Matsushita meanwhile lost his best time in Q1, dropping the Real Racing Honda from 12th to 15th and last.

Subaru on GT300 pole again

#61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT

Photo by: Masahide Kamio

Subaru put on a dominant performance in Fuji qualifying to make it back-to-back pole positions in the GT300 class.

Hideki Yamauchi was the only driver to break the 1m35s barrier in the session, setting a time of 1m34.983s on his first flying lap in the #61 R&D Sport BRZ before improving to a 1m34.888s to put pole position out of reach of his rivals.

Ryuichiro Tomita qualified second in the #10 Gainer Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, but almost four tenths down on Yamauchi's pole time.

Morio Nitta ended up third in the #96 K-Tunes Lexus RC F after his teammate Shinichi Takagi topped his group in Q1, while Masataka Yanagida put the #34 Drago Corse Nissan fourth on the grid in only its second qualifying with the GT-R.

Dunlop-shod cars locked out the top four spots in GT300, with the #65 LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 driven by Takuro Shinohara the highest-placed car on Bridgestone tyres.

Further back, the #56 Kondo Racing Nissan that won the Okayama season opener successfully made it into Q2 with Joao Paulo de Oliveira at the wheel, but 60kg of additional weight meant teammate Kiyoto Fujinami could only set the 14th-quickest time in the pole shootout.

Team LeMans, which has signed ex-Formula 1 driver Roberto Merhi as part of a refreshed line-up after parting ways with Satoshi Motoyama, qualified 18th after just missing out the Q2 cut with driver Shintaro Kawabata at the wheel of its Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.

GT500 qualifying results: