Llosa Claims Pole in Tight Suzuka Qualifying

Ricardo Llosa continued his strong form after winning the last round in Zhuhai, China with securing the pole position for the GT-R WC race at the Suzuka Circuit.

The Spaniard would deny Frank Zimmer from getting his sixth pole of the season by setting a time that was less than four hundredths of a second faster than that set by the Australian. The factory Chevrolet driver would be the only driver to go into the One minute Fifty-One barrier in the twenty minute session, helping him secure his third pole position of the season in what would be the tightest session of the season so far. All thirty drivers who took part in the session were within 102% of the time set by Llosa on the 5.8 Kilometer circuit, with Kastazumo Nakaya in the Luxray Engineering Viper being only 1.8 seconds off the pace of the 2016 Co-Champion.

Locking out the second row of the grid would be both of the Gerald Pereria Lister Storms, who look to bounce back from a double retirement last time out in Zhuhai, China. Fabian Rei and Shane Sparks put in near-identical times in the session, but found themselves two tenths behind the first row starters, and two tenths in front of third row starters Stefan Kuntz and Denis van Walwijk. Behind van Walwijk would be Rafael Modena, putting in one of the best performances for the struggling Maserati MC12 for the season, he will be starting seventh on Sunday.

Eleven of the top twelve starters are manufacture entries, with Darren Older Jr. in the Commonwealth Chevrolet Corvette being the only non-manufacture team in that group, with him starting ninth. The only Manufacture entry not in the top twelve is Pieter Kickert in the second Rosenforth Pagani, who struggled to get clean air in the session. The farthest forward starting full time Independent entry is the Scuderia Belgio Ferrari 550 in thirteenth, with newly-crowned Independents Co-Champion Asim Adhikari starting alongside Gia van Dycke.

Pos#ClassDriverTeamTime
11MRicardo LlosaUnion Saver1:51.973
262MFrank ZimmerRosenforth+0.039
319MFabian ReiGerald Pereria+0.263
420MShane SparksGerald Pereria+0.265
502MStefan KuntzSolvalou+0.415
627MDenis van WalwijkVittore+0.464
73MRafael ModenaDelacroix-Serrano+0.544
820MKarl Lichter ShultzUnion Saver+0.567
956IDarren Older Jr.CWG+0.648
104MGiovanni RodaDelacroix-Serrano+0.654
1103MAntonio FazioSolvalou+0.690
1228MAlexandre-Laurent VoecklerVittore+0.728
135IGia Van DyckeBelgio+0.864
1441IAsim AdhikariBest In The World+1.014
1511IAnita HorfordBest In The World+1.019
1640IMattias KjellerupKjellerup+1.076
1788GYuka KatayamaJLOC+1.132
1818IChiara RossiICE-3+1.146
196IRoland DavidsonGulf+1.172
2039IJose Pablo MazzacaneKjellerup+1.175
2173ITom DouglasJLD+1.267
2212IJohn MagnusAeroracing+1.272
2331MPieter KickertRosenforth+1.314
2489ICarlton ChoLKM+1.335
2591INikolas HirvonenGlobex Scorpio+1.586
2697IAlexi MelvanovChris Short+1.638
2717IHelena BoveriICE-3+1.648
2899IYuya KurosawaToshio+1.658
2987IDiego Mauricio BatistutaJLD+1.759
3067IKastazumo NakayaLuxray+1.880