Dream Race – 1st row Cassidy-Duval in Race 1

Nick Cassidy's Lexus took pole position for the first race of the Dream Race, which is being held this weekend at Fuji Speedway. But Loïc Duval's Audi is not far away.

Published on 23/11/2019 à 02:08

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Dream Race – 1st row Cassidy-Duval in Race 1

If the rain is still present in Shizuoka prefecture, it is nothing compared to the downpours that fell yesterday on the Fuji Speedway. It was therefore in very good conditions that qualifying for the first race of the Dream Race was held, with the sun even peeking out at the end of the session.

Very quickly, the first three places were locked by Nick Cassidy (Lexus LC500 n°37 / Tom'S), Loïc duval (Audi RS5 DTM n°28 / Team Phoenix) and Naoki Yamamoto (Honda NSX-GT n°1 / Kunimitsu).

2017 Super GT champion, the New Zealander completed a lap of the Fuji Speedway in 1'41"827 and is 0"331 ahead of Frenchman Loïc Duval, who is certainly the most energetic DTM representative this week. The leading fifth is therefore completed by Naoki Yamoto, Ronnie Quintarelli (Nissan GT-R n°23 / Nismo) and Mike Rockenfeller (Audi RS5 DTM n°99 / Team Phoenix).

With two “DTM” and three “Super GT” in the top five, it was difficult to dream of a better distribution. However, to then find a German car, you have to go back to 14th place, occupied by René Rast (Audi RS5 DTM n°33 / Rosberg). The German conceded 1”5 to the reference mark and is two places ahead of Benoît Tréluyer (Audi RS5 DTM n°21 / WRT Hitotsuyama).

The three BMWs are even further behind, Alessandro Zanardi (M4 DTM n°4 / RBM) bringing up the rear, 3”3 behind Cassidy’s best performance.

Note also the eighth time of Frédéric Makowiecki (Nissan GT-R n°3 / NDDP Racing with B-Max). Finally, completely rebuilt after Hideki Mutoh's violent exit from the track yesterday in free practice, the Honda NSX-GT n°16 of Team Mugen was indeed on track this morning and set the penultimate time.