Testing report
Super GT Fuji March testing
SARD Toyota concludes Fuji SUPER GT test on top
The SARD Toyota team concluded the final day of SUPER GT pre-season testing at Fuji Speedway with the fastest time courtesy of Yuhi Sekiguchi.
Jamie Klein
Edited: Mar 28, 2022, 12:08 AM
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Sekiguchi, who has moved to SARD after winning last year's title for TOM'S alongside Sho Tsuboi, set the day's fastest time of 1m28.276s to give Toyota a clean sweep of top times in official pre-season testing.
However, Tsuboi's Saturday benchmark of 1m27.972s in the #36 TOM'S car stood as the best time across the two-day test.
Read Also:
- TOM'S, Tsuboi continue perfect SUPER GT testing run at Fuji
- Dunlop puzzled by dramatic Mugen puncture at Fuji
The day started with poor weather, with the track staying wet throughout the two-hour morning session, which like Saturday's rain-affected afternoon session was topped by Nissan's two NISMO-run Zs.
Katsumasa Chiyo set the morning's best time of 1m36.895s in the #3 NDDP Racing-branded car, around a tenth up on the #23 machine of Ronnie Quintarelli.
The afternoon session - extended to three hours after Saturday's bad weather - likewise began in the wet, but as conditions improved Chiyo's morning benchmark was quickly surpassed.
At around the 40-minute mark the teams switched over to slick tyres, with Rookie Racing man Kenta Yamashita the first to break the 1m30s barrier after a little over an hour had elapsed.
With an hour left on the clock, a red flag was thrown to collect a piece of debris on the approach to Turn 1, after which Tomoki Nojiri moved to the head of the leaderboard with a 1m28.483s in the ARTA Honda.
That was then surpassed by Sekiguchi, who outpaced Nojiri to the tune of 0.207s at the wheel of the SARD GR Supra he shares with Yuichi Nakayama.
Third-fastest was the #17 Real Racing Honda of Koudai Tsukakoshi, less than a tenth back from Nojiri, while Nissan's top representative was the #3 car of Mitsunori Takaboshi on a 1m28.655s.
#3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL Z
Photo by: Masahide Kamio
Naoki Yamamoto made it three Honda NSX-GTs in the top five, 0.004s slower than Takaboshi, while Yamashita ended up sixth in the Rookie Toyota, another thousandth behind.
The #36 TOM'S Toyota that had topped all three official test days prior to Sunday was only 13th-fastest with Giuliano Alesi at the wheel while the track was rapidly improving. Tsuboi took over for the closing stages for a long run.
GT300: Cozzolino fastest for Ferrari
In the GT300 class, Kei Cozzolino set the fastest time of the test aboard the Pacific CarGuy Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo.
Cozzolino's best time of 1m36.142s narrowly surpassed the best time from Saturday set by the Team UpGarage Honda NSX GT3, which continued its strong form with the second-fastest time on Sunday.
Honda junior driver and SUPER GT novice Kakunoshin Ota left it late to post a best time of 1m36.543s, around three tenths slower than teammate Takashi Kobayashi had managed on Saturday.
JLOC's pair of Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evos also continued their strong form, Yuya Motojima going third-quickest in the #88 car ahead of Natsu Sakaguchi in the #87 machine. Masataka Yanagida rounded out the top five at the wheel of Drago Corse's new Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.
Causing a red flag in the morning session was the #48 NILZZ Nissan, which suffered a crash exiting Turn 2 with gentleman driver Joe Shindo at the wheel, also preventing the team from running in the afternoon.
Gainer's #10 Nissan meanwhile did not participate at all following its crash on Saturday.
Fuji testing times (GT500 class):
Pos. No. Car/Team Drivers Morning Afternoon 1 39 SARD Toyota
Yuhi Sekiguchi
Yuichi Nakayama
1'38.227 1'28.276 2 8 ARTA Honda
Tomoki Nojiri
Nirei Fukuzumi
1'37.613 1'28.483 3 17 Real Honda
Koudai Tsukakoshi
Nobuharu Matsushita
1'39.234 1'28.572 4 3 NDDP Nissan
Katsumasa Chiyo
Mitsunori Takaboshi
1'36.895 1'28.655 5 100 Kunimitsu Honda
Naoki Yamamoto
Tadasuke Makino
1'38.742 1'28.659 6 14 Rookie Toyota
Kenta Yamashita
Kazuya Oshima
1'37.639 1'28.660 7 38 Cerumo Toyota
Yuji Tachikawa
Hiroaki Ishiura
1'38.619 1'28.713 8 12 Impul Nissan
Bertrand Baguette
Kazuki Hiramine
1'37.651 1'28.763 9 37 TOM'S Toyota
Sacha Fenestraz
Ritomo Miyata
1'38.760 1'29.064 10 24 Kondo Nissan
Kohei Hirate
Daiki Sasaki
1'38.353 1'29.070 11 19 Bandoh Toyota
Yuji Kunimoto
Sena Sakaguchi
1'37.958 1'29.086 12 16 Mugen Honda
Ukyo Sasahara
Toshiki Oyu
1'40.741 1'29.180 13 36 TOM'S Toyota
Giuliano Alesi
Sho Tsuboi
1'38.100 1'29.390 14 64 Nakajima Honda
Takuya Izawa
Hiroki Otsu
1'40.024 1'29.711 15 23 NISMO Nissan
Ronnie Quintarelli
Tsugio Matsuda
1'36.989 1'29.717
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