Practice report
Super GT Fuji
Fuji Super GT: Makino tops practice for Honda
Ex-Formula 2 racer Tadasuke Makino set the pace in the Team Kunimitsu Honda NSX-GT on the opening day of practice for the 2020 SUPER GT season at Fuji Speedway.
Jamie Klein
Edited: Jul 18, 2020, 3:00 PM
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The arrival of heavy fog at the Toyota-owned track resulted in a 75-minute delay to proceedings, with the session being cut by 20 minutes to an hour-and-a-half.
Makino's best time of 1m27.248s came in the final 10 minutes, reserved for the faster GT500 cars, and was enough to beat fellow Honda driver Tomoki Nojiri by 0.031s.
Prior to the final shootout, Nirei Fukuzumi in the #8 ARTA Honda had set the pace with a 1m27.596s, which was eclipsed by first Nojiri and then finally Makino.
Third-fastest was reigning SUPER GT champion Kenta Yamashita - deputising for the absent Heikki Kovalainen - in the best of the all-new Toyota GR Supras, 0.122s off the pace in the #39 SARD car, just ahead of Sacha Fenestraz in the #36 TOM'S Toyota.
#39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra
Photo by: GTA
New Envision Virgin Formula E signing Nick Cassidy ran wide at Turn 1 as he began a hot lap but recovered to set the fifth-fastest time in the sister #37 TOM'S car.
Next up were the two Cerumo-run Supras, Hiroaki Ishiura taking sixth in the #38 car ahead of Sho Tsuboi in the #14 machine, followed by Koudai Tsukakoshi in the #17 Real Racing Honda.
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Best of the non-Bridgestone cars was the Red Bull-liveried Mugen Honda, which uses Yokohama rubber, in ninth with SUPER GT rookie Ukyo Sasahara at the wheel.
Nissan suffered a session to forget with none of its four GT-Rs breaking into the top 10.
The Yokohama marque's fastest representative was the Michelin-shod #3 NDDP/B-Max car of Katsumasa Chiyo, more than a second slower than the benchmark set by Makino, ahead of Ronnie Quintarelli in the works #23 NISMO entry.
#23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R
Photo by: GTA
In GT300, the Cars Tokai Dream28 Lotus Evora shot to the top of the times in the 10-minute window reserved for the 29-car junior class in the hands of Masataka Yanagida.
Former Nissan GT500 man Yanagida set a best time of 1m36.719s to eclipse the benchmark of 1m36.817s that reigning champion Shinichi Takagi had set in the ARTA Honda NSX GT3 during the regular portion of the session.
Third-fastest was Naoya Gamou at the wheel of the LEON Mercedes-AMG GT3, followed by the #11 Gainer Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 and the works-entered R&D Sport Subaru BRZ.
With bad weather forecast at Fuji for Sunday morning when qualifying is due to take place, Friday's times could end up determining the grid for the 2020 curtain-raiser.
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GT500 session results:
Pos. No. Team Car Drivers Time Gap 1 100 Team Kunimitsu Honda
Naoki Yamamoto
Tadasuke Makino
1m27.248s 2 8 ARTA Honda
Tomoki Nojiri
Nirei Fukuzumi
1m27.279s 0.031s 3 39 SARD Toyota
Yuichi Nakayama
Kenta Yamashita
1m27.370s 0.122s 4 36 TOM'S Toyota
Yuhi Sekiguchi
Sacha Fenestraz
1m27.408s 0.160s 5 37 TOM'S Toyota
Nick Cassidy
Ryo Hirakawa
1m27.662s 0.414s 6 38 Cerumo Toyota
Hiroaki Ishiura
Yuji Tachikawa
1m27.774s 0.526s 7 14 Cerumo Toyota
Kazuya Oshima
Sho Tsuboi
1m27.923s 0.675s 8 17 Real Racing Honda
Koudai Tsukakoshi
Bertrand Baguette
1m28.084s 0.836s 9 16 Team Mugen Honda
Hideki Mutoh
Ukyo Sasahara
1m28.183s 0.935s 10 19 Racing Project Bandoh Toyota
Yuji Kunimoto
Ritomo Miyata
1m28.199s 0.951s 11 3 NDDP/B-Max Racing Nissan
Kohei Hirate
Katsumasa Chiyo
1m28.267s 1.019s 12 23 NISMO Nissan
Ronnie Quintarelli
Tsugio Matsuda
1m28.562s 1.314s 13 64 Nakajima Racing Honda
Takuya Izawa
Hiroki Otsu
1m28.755s 1.507s 14 24 Kondo Racing Nissan
Jann Mardenborough
Mitsunori Takaboshi
1m29.258s 2.010s 15 12 Team Impul Nissan
Daiki Sasaki
Kazuki Hiramine
1m29.590s 2.342s
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