Testing report
Super GT Okayama Testing
Honda leads the way on first day of official SUPER GT testing
The ARTA Honda team led the way on the opening day of official SUPER GT pre-season testing at Okayama on Saturday, with Nirei Fukuzumi posting the fastest lap.
Jamie Klein
Edited: Mar 12, 2023, 12:09 AM
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Fukuzumi set what proved to be the day's benchmark time of 1m17.827s just under halfway through the two-hour morning session at the wheel of the #16 Honda NSX-GT he shares with new team-mate Hiroki Otsu.
That was around 1.6 seconds slower than the best time set in manufacturer testing at Okayama in early February, but with the important caveat of this being the first test of the year in which the use of carbon-neutral fuel is mandatory.
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Unseasonably warm weather is also likely to have contributed to the slower laptimes compared to the February test.
Fukuzumi led a one-two for Honda, a mere 0.036s up on the #100 Team Kunimitsu car driven by Naoki Yamamoto.
Behind the two leading Hondas, the #36 TOM'S Toyota of Sho Tsuboi was next up, within two tenths of the pace, while Tomoki Nojiri made it three NSX-GTs in the top four in the #8 ARTA car.
The four Nissan Zs occupied places five through eight, the quickest of the quartet being the #1 Impul car (Kazuki Hiramine) followed by the Yokohama tyre-shod Kondo Racing machine (Daiki Sasaki).
NISMO's pair of works entries running on Michelin tyres were seventh and eighth, driven by Ronnie Quintarelli and Katsumasa Chiyo respectively.
Toyota's remaining runners struggled for pace, filling out the final five places, led by the Rookie Racing GR Supra which is being driven single-handedly this weekend by Kazuya Oshima.
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Rising temperatures in the two-hour afternoon session meant there were no improvements compared to the morning in the GT500 class.
Fukuzumi once again set the pace in this session with a 1m18.421s at the very end of the day, during the 10 minutes of running reserved for the top class. Toshiki Oyu made it a 1-2 for ARTA, 0.180s slower in the #8 car, while Mitsunori Takaboshi was third in the #3 Nissan.
In the GT300 class, it was the JLOC Lamborghini squad that set the pace as Takashi Kogure set the benchmark time of 1m25.400s in the #88 Huracan GT3 Evo during the morning session.
#88 JLOC Lamborghini GT3
Photo by: Masahide Kamio
Ex-Formula 1 driver Roberto Merhi was second-fastest in the Team LeMans Audi R8 LMS GT3, with team-mate Yoshiaki Katayama going almost as quick, while veteran Morio Nitta was third-fastest in the K-tunes Racing Lexus RC F GT3.
apr's brand-new hybrid-powered Lexus LC500h GT got off to a solid start with the sixth-fastest time in the hands of Kazuto Kotaka.
Fastest in the afternoon session was the Max Racing Toyota GR Supra GT of Atsushi Miyake with a 1m26.199s.
The only red flag of the day came late in the morning session when the #5 Team Mach Toyota 86 Mother Chassis came to a stop on the outside of Turn 3.
Subaru's revamped BRZ also suffered problems in the afternoon as it came to a stop in the pit entrance, but the session remained green.
Testing continues on Sunday with two more two-hour sessions planned.
Okayama SUPER GT testing times (GT500 class):
Pos. No. Team/Car Drivers Morning Afternoon 1 16 ARTA/Honda
Nirei Fukuzumi
Hiroki Otsu
1'17.827 1'18.421 2 100 Kunimitsu/Honda
Naoki Yamamoto
Tadasuke Makino
1'17.863 1'18.704 3 36 TOM'S/Toyota
Sho Tsuboi
Ritomo Miyata
1'18.007 1'19.208 4 8 ARTA/Honda
Tomoki Nojiri
Toshiki Oyu
1'18.066 1'18.601 5 1 Impul/Nissan
Bertrand Baguette
Kazuki Hiramine
1'18.276 1'18.896 6 24 Kondo Racing/Nissan
Daiki Sasaki
Kohei Hirate
1'18.312 1'18.861 7 23 NISMO/Nissan
Ronnie Quintarelli
Tsugio Matsuda
1'18.562 1'19.208 8 3 NDDP Racing/Nissan
Katsumasa Chiyo
Mitsunori Takaboshi
1'18.581 1'18.685 9 64 Nakajima Racing/Honda
Takuya Izawa
1'18.590 1'19.189 10 17 Real Racing/Honda
Koudai Tsukakoshi
Nobuharu Matsushita
1'18.594 1'18.966 11 14 Rookie Racing/Toyota
Kazuya Oshima
1'18.655 1'19.192 12 39 SARD/Toyota
Yuhi Sekiguchi
Yuichi Nakayama
1'18.819 1'19.080 13 19 Racing Project Bandoh/Toyota
Yuji Kunimoto
Sena Sakaguchi
1'18.941 1'19.288 14 37 TOM'S/Toyota
Giuliano Alesi
Ukyo Sasahara
1'19.001 1'19.238 15 38 Cerumo/Toyota
Yuji Tachikawa
Hiroaki Ishiura
1'19.257 1'20.234
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