- Miedecke/MPC’s Mies, Olsen and Vervisch share front row with Ponos Ferrari
- #77 Mercedes-AMG ultimately excluded following technical checks
- Results: Suzuka 1000km Qualifying
Ford has secured its maiden Suzuka 1000km and Intercontinental GT Challenge pole positions ahead of Sunday’s 50th Summer Endurance Race after a grid penalty cost Craft-Bamboo top spot.
Miedecke/MPC’s Chris Mies, Dennis Olsen and Frederic Vervisch were consistently quick enough across the three 15-minute qualifying sessions to inherit P1 from IGTC title contenders Maxime Martin and Luca Stolz plus Kakunoshin Ohta whose Night Practice red flag indiscretion had restricted the #77 Mercedes-AMG to fourth at best. Damage limitation appeared to be complete before their lap times were subsequently removed for the car being underweight.
But theirs wasn’t the only entry to lose places post-qualifying when a further eight cars were docked positions for a variety of offences.
PONOS Racing’s Ferrari wasn’t one of them. Instead, it shares row one with the sole Mustang thanks, in part, to Seita Nonaka topping Q1 in the 296 he shares with Takuro Shinohara and Tadasuke Makino. The all-Japanese crew’s average time was just 0.035s slower than Miedecke/MPC’s and a tenth clear of Absolute Racing whose #7 Porsche beat the sister, AO-supported 911 to fourth at the end of Q3.
The biggest winners towards the front were KRC’s Bronze class pole-winning BMW of Ruan Cun Fan, Maxime Oosten and Max Hesse who have jumped two places from sixth, and the 5ZIGEN Nissan that now lines up fifth after its pro trio of Atsushi Miyake, Katsumasa Chiyo and Atsushi Hiramine initially set the ninth fastest average time.
They head up a revised row three that also features AO’s penalised Bushi Rex Porsche of Julian Andlauer, Alessio Picariello and Laurin Heinrich.
LM Corsa’s #80 Ferrari will be next in the queue despite originally qualifying 11th, while the 75 Express Mercedes-AMG that was due to lose three spots in fact remains eighth thanks to penalties elsewhere. Ninth goes to High Class Racing’s Porsche featuring IGTC Independent Cup leader Li Kerong, and JMR’s #2 Corvette rounds out the top 10 despite incurring a five-place grid penalty for speeding under Q2’s red flag conditions when Porsche Center Okazaki’s stranded 911 brought the session to an early end.
Heinrich and Alessio Rovera (Maezawa Racing) officially topped Q2 and Q3 after #77’s lap times were deleted. But recent IGTC history suggests all is not lost for Craft-Bamboo’s crew: this year’s races at Bathurst, Nürburgring and Spa have been won from 29th, 25th and the pitlane, respectively.
The fully revised grid will be issued on Sunday morning before the 6.5-hour race begins at 12:50 JST (GMT +9). SRO’s GT World YouTube channel has live and restriction-free coverage, while Japanese fans can also watch with native commentary on the same platform and J Sports.