Benoit Treluyer was the class of the field in the Super Lap session.
After struggling for the whole the year, finally the Nismo backed MOTUL AUTECH GT-R managed to secure pole position in the 5th Round of the championship at Sugo. Benoit Treluyer lapped the circuit with the fastest time of 1’16.178 in the final Super Lap session. The RAYBRIG HSV-010, driven by Takuya Izawa took 2nd with a time of 1’16.622 ahead of the MJ KRAFT SC430 in 3rd.
A strong performance from the championship leader Daisuke Ito and Bjorn Wirdheim.
Championship leader, the ENEOS SC430 qualified in 6th place at the hands of Bjorn Wirdheim. Pretty impressive considering the 80 kg of weight handicap compared to the MOTUL AUTECH GT-R which has only 36 kg. In comparison, the PETRONAS TOM’S SC430 only managed to qualify in 12th place, despite carrying 74 kg of weight handicap, 6 kg lighter than the championship leader.
The Apple·K-ONE·Shiden of Hiroki Katoh and Hiroshi Hamaguchi topped the timesheet in the 1st qualifying session and the Super Lap session.
In the GT300 Class, Hiroki Katoh secured pole position with a time of 1’24.471 ahead of the EVANGELION RT TEST TYPE-01 apr COROLLA driven by Koki Saga in 2nd and the ARTA Garaiya driven by Shinichi Takagi in 3rd. The most impressive performance was by the M7 MUTIARA MOTORSAMEMIYASGC 7 of Nobuteru Taniguchi who qualified in 5th place, despite carrying 50 kg more weight ballast than the pole sitter.
Nobuteru Taniguchi will start tomorrow’s race from 5th position.
Pole Position Winner Comments :
No. 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R [GT500]
Satoshi Motoyama : “This time everything went well with the tires, the engine and the new aerodynamic parts. The process of trial and error we have been through this season finally produced a 2nd-place finish for us in the last round and I think the performance was even better today. I am truly grateful to the whole team. And, even though Benoit is apparently suffering a bit from a cold, he ran a perfect time attack. I want to thank him too. In the early stages of this season, we weren’t doing well at scoring points, so the last round at Sepang, this round at SUGO and the next one at Suzuka are especially critical for us if we are going to stay in contention for the title. In tomorrow’s race I am going to drive hard to help us come through with the win.”
Benoit Treluyer : “It was a perfect day today. I think I can say that the set-up went better than in any round yet this season. We have been struggling so far this season, but I think now we can say that we have “found it.” It is the same feeling of assurance as when we won the title on 2008, so I’m feeling a bit relieved. There was just one problem today, but that was solved quickly, so I was able to run the fastest time in all sessions today. The Michelin tires are good in hot track conditions, so I am confident about our prospects for tomorrow as well. Although you never know how a race is going to turn out until the checkered is waved, but since the car is in such good condition, I personally am expecting good results tomorrow.”
Photo : Masaaki Kitagawa
Info : supergt.net
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