Suzuka 1000 km – Nissan on pole, Button 9th

The result is surprising. By completing a lap in 1'47"074, Joao Paulo de Oliveira took pole position for the 2017 edition of the Suzuka 1000 kilometers at the wheel of the No. 24 Kondo Racing Nissan GT-R which he shares with the Japanese Daiki Sasaki.

The two men will start in front of the No. 500 Lecus LC 19 of Team WedsSport Bandoh entrusted to Yuhi Sekiguchi-Yuji Kunimoto-Kamui Kobayashi. The No. 17 Honda of Real Racing (Koudai Tsukakoshi-Takashi Kogure) and the No. 64 of Nakajima Racing that Belgian Bertrand Baguette shares with Kosuke Matsuura will follow. The No. 46 Nissan GT-R of Motoyama-Chiyo will start fifth ahead of the No. 12 of Yasuda-Mardenborough and the No. 37 Lexus of Hirakawa-Cassidy.

Responsible for Q1, Jenson Button completed a lap in 1'48"588. Honorable but unfortunately insufficient to move on to the next step. The No. 16 Honda NSX-GT of Team Mugen, which he shares with Hideki Mutoh and Daisuka Nakajima, was the first to fail in the first part of qualifying and will therefore start tomorrow from ninth position, just ahead of the No. 500 Lexus LC 36. 23 from the Tom's team at the wheel of which we find James Rossiter, the championship leader. The official No. XNUMX Nissan GT-R of Ronnie Quintarelli-Tsugio Matsuda will start sixteenth.

In GT300, the pole position is to the credit of the Toyota 86 MC n°25 entered by Team Tsuchiya for the trio Takamitsu Matshui-Kenta Yamashita-Tsubasa Konda.

The start of the 2017 edition of the Suzuka 1000 km, the last under the current format, will be given tomorrow at 5:35 a.m. French time.