Tyre management will be absolutely critical in deciding the outcome of round 3 of the 2013 AUTOBACS SUPER GT Series at Sepang International Circuit today (16th June 2013). This was the common sentiment shared by both pole position team drivers in the GT 500 and GT 300 classes ahead of today’s 54-lap 2-hour race in which tyre manufacturers Bridgestone and Michelin have both been dominant.
Calsonic IMPUL GT-R’s Tsugio Matsuda and Joao Paulo Lima De Oliveira were fastest around the 5.543km Sepang International Circuit with a time of 1 minute: 55. 456 seconds in the GT 500 class as the final qualifying session of the day benefitted from perfectly ambient dry weather.
“We were very worried about the initial set-up of the car earlier in the day but we looked at the telemetry data, made a few critical changes and managed to improve our lap times.It’s going to be a long race tomorrow and it will be important to manage the tyres well and not push the tyres over the edge before the end of the race,” said De Oliveira. He singled out the closest challengers will likely come from Lexus Team Zent Cerumo drivers Yuji Tachikawa and Kohei Hirate who was second fastest in qualifying with a time of 1 min:55.589 sec. The Lexus Team KeePer Tom’s Daisuke Ito and Andrea Caldarelli meanwhile, clocked 1 min: 55.688 sec and will start tomorrow’s 54-lap race from third position on the grid.
2013-15-6(Sat) Sepang International Circuit Cloudy/Dry(Weather/Course)
Po
No
Machine
Driver
Q1
Q2
Tire
WH
1
12
CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R NISSAN GT-R / VRH34B
Tsugio Matsuda J.P.Lima De Oliveira
1’55.620
1’55.456
22
2
38
ZENT CERUMO SC430 LEXUS SC430 / RV8KG
Yuji Tachikawa Kohei Hirate
1’55.778
1’55.589
46
3
37
KeePer TOM’S SC430 LEXUS SC430 / RV8KG
Daisuke Ito Andrea Caldarelli
1’56.214
1’55.688
10
4
39
DENSO KOBELCO SC430 LEXUS SC430 / RV8KG
Juichi Wakisaka Hiroaki Ishiura
1’56.054
1’55.751
22
5
100
RAYBRIG HSV-010 Honda HSV-010 GT / HR10EG
Takuya Izawa Takashi Kogure
1’55.886
1’56.015
48
6
1
REITO MOLA GT-R NISSAN GT-R / VRH34B
Satoshi Motoyama Yuhi Sekiguchi
1’55.844
1’56.046
6
7
8
ARTA HSV-010 Honda HSV-010 GT / HR10EG
Ralph Firman Kosuke Matsuura
1’56.185
1’56.770
10
8
18
Weider Modulo HSV-010 Honda HSV-010 GT / HR10EG
Naoki Yamamoto Frederic Makowiecki
1’55.709
1’57.969
14
9
23
MOTUL AUTECH GT-R NISSAN GT-R / VRH34B
Masataka Yanagida Ronnie Quintarelli
1’56.336
22
10
17
KEIHIN HSV-010 Honda HSV-010 GT / HR10EG
Koudai Tsukakoshi Toshihiro Kaneishi
1’56.468
30
11
36
PETRONAS TOM’S SC430 LEXUS SC430 / RV8KG
Kazuki Nakajima James Rossiter
1’56.552
40
12
6
ENEOS SUSTINA SC430 LEXUS SC430 / RV8KG
Kazuya Oshima Yuji Kunimoto
1’56.562
30
13
32
Epson HSV-010 Honda HSV-010 GT / HR10EG
Ryo Michigami Daisuke Nakajima
1’56.618
14
24
D’station ADVAN GT-R NISSAN GT-R / VRH34B
Hironobu Yasuda Michael Krumm
1’57.245
15
19
WedsSport ADVAN SC430 LEXUS SC430 / RV8KG
Seiji Ara Andre Couto
1’57.427
Tire = BS:Bridgestone / DL:Dunlop / MI:Michelin / YH:Yokohama
WH = Handicap Weight (kg)
“We will definitely have to careful with Lexus. The straights in Sepang are very long and they seem to have an advantage in these sectors.” After scoring its first victory in round 2 at the Fuji Speedway in Shizuoka, Japan, the Malaysian-backed Petronas Toms SC430 pair of Kazuki Nakajima and James Rossiter meanwhile, had to settle for 11th position, with a time of 1 min: 56.552 sec.
The battle for supremacy in the GT 300 class, is also shaping to become a closely contested one with ARTA CRZ GT’s Shinichi Takagi and Takashi Kobayashi securing pole position with a time of 2 min: 03.374 sec. A second Honda CRZ will line-up alongside on the front row of the grid driven by the pair of Hideki Mutoh and Yuhki Nakayama of Team MUGEN, while in third position is the Subaru of R&D Sport’s Tetsuya Yamano and Kota Sasaki. The car seems to be very well suited to Sepang, and hopefully Kobayashi and I will be able to bring it across the finish line with a good result,” said senior driver Takagi. “The Subarus are very strong. They’ve already secured two pole positions so far in three rounds of the series and they are incredibly strong. Ultimately, I hope the weather remains and it doesn’t rain because that would be a very big difference to the outcome of the race.”
