Nissan leads top five manufacturers in Blancpain GT Asia qualifying 1 at Fuji 21.07.2018: Nissan, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche and Audi will start this afternoon’s race from the first five positions following a competitive opening qualifying

Nissan, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche and Audi will start this afternoon’s race from the first five positions following a competitive opening qualifying session at Fuji.

However, it’ll be Edoardo Liberati up front after the Italian claimed Nissan’s maiden Blancpain GT Series Asia pole by 0.601s from HubAuto Corsa’s debutant, Jono Lester.



KCMG’s #23 GT-R was the first to set a representative time, and one that would have ultimately been good enough for second. However, Liberati improved again on his second run to post a best of 1m37.279s.



Lester’s Ferrari came closest to toppling Liberati, but the New Zealander was ultimately forced to settle for second ahead of championship leader Dennis Lind whose FFF Racing Team Lamborghini must serve the full 15s pitstop success penalty later today for winning at Suzuka.




The Dane was 0.247s behind Lester and one tenth clear of Sandy Stuvik’s Craft-Bamboo Porsche, which vaulted from 10th to fourth on its final run.



Martin Rump ran second at the start of the session but dropped to fifth in the final reckoning after opting to pit his Absolute Racing Audi early. The Estonian finished one place ahead of leading amateur Yuke Taniguchi in the second of KCMG’s Nissans, and Shaun Thong who also picked up places with a late flying lap.



Hiroshi Hamaguchi (FFF Racing Lamborghini), Nico Bastian (GruppeM Mercedes-AMG) and Hiroaki Nagai (ARN Racing Ferrari) completed the top-10, while KCMG’s Naoto Takeda was fastest of the Am Cup entries in 20th overall.



Elsewhere, BMW Team Studie’s #81 M4 GT4 maintained the form that helped it top all three practice sessions by claiming class pole for this afternoon’s race. Sunako Jukuchou’s 1m47.057s was eight tenths quicker than the sister car driven by Ken Urata and another half-second clear of Brian Lee’s TTR Team SARD Porsche.



Ringo Chong finished fourth in the Team iRace.Win Mercedes-AMG but starts last after the car failed a post-qualifying ride height test. Richard Wee’s Clearwater McLaren and George Chou’s Taiwan Top Speed Porsche therefore line up fourth and fifth.

- Benjamin Franassovici, photo SRO