Rossi Takes Single Season Record With Suzuka Pole

Matteo Rossi secured the single-season record for the amount of pole positions in a season in Qualifying for the GT Super Series season finale at the Suzuka Circuit.

After failing to capitalize on two previous chances to take the record for his own, Rossi shined bright in drying conditions. With everyone on Intermediate Tires, the Michelin-shod Aston Martin put in the quickest time in the session on its third lap, after the tires warmed up properly. Before that point, Fabian Rei and newly crowned champion Chris Winter took turns having provisional pole position, before the Italian put in a time a quarter of a second clear of second place qualifying Fabian Rei. This is Rossi’s sixth pole position of the season, seventh of his career, and it gives him the single season record for the amount of pole positions in a season; previously it was shared by Ricardo Llosa and Frank Zimmer at five.

Chris Winter ended up qualifying in third place, more than a half of a second off of Rossi’s pace. Rounding out the top five in qualifying was Denis van Walkwijk and Li Qi, putting in lap times that were separated by two hundredths of a second. The top six qualifiers were Manufacture Trophy entries, rounding out the group was Drivers Championship runner up-elect Evgeny Restov. The fastest Independent Trophy driver was the winner from Sepang in Ai Tsukimura, she was nearly nine tenths off of the pace set by Matteo Rossi in the changing conditions.

The next independent runner was Gia Van Dycke in ninth, the second car to be more than one second off of pole position pace. Qualifying third in class, twelfth overall, is Sam Winton in his best qualifying performance since his eighth place starting position at the Nurburgring. Directly behind Winton was the class winner from Zhuhai, China in Koyomi Setou, continuing her strong form since taking the helm of the Best In The World Lamborghini.

Qualifying Results – Round of Japan