Okayama Super GT: Honda locks out front row, Button fifth

Rain arrived halfway through qualifying, meaning Q2 sessions for both GT500 and GT300 cars took place on a damp track.

The #3 B-Max Nissan and #8 ARTA Honda traded places at the top of the timesheets for much of qualifying, before the latter car stamped its authority with a 1m27.058s lap.

However, seconds before the chequered flag dropped, Koudai Tsukakoshi went a tenth quicker with a time of 1m26.905s, securing the #17 Real Racing NSX-GT he shares with Takashi Kogure pole position for the season opener.

Tomoki Nojiri and Takuya Izawa had to settle for second position in the ARTA car, while B-Max duo Satoshi Motoyama and Katsumasa Chiyo finished over four tenths adrift in third.

Kazuya Oshima and Formula E star Felix Rosenqvist were classified fourth in the leading Lexus entry, the #6 Team LeMans, less than a tenth shy of the #3 Nissan.

Formula 1 2009 champion Jenson Button qualified fifth in the #100 Team Kunimitsu Honda, having taken over from teammate Naoki Yamamoto after Q1.

Joao Paulo de Oliveira and Mitsunori Takaboshi could only manage sixth in the #24 Kondo Nissan after topping a dry first leg of qualifying.

The #19 Bandoh Lexus crew of Yuji Kunimoto and Kenta Yamashita were ranked seventh, while the #24 NISMO crew of Ronnie Quintarelli and Tsugio Matsuda ended eighth after failing to set a representative time in Q2.

Defending champions Nick Cassidy and Ryo Hirakawa were unable to progress from Q1 and will start ninth in the #1 TOM’S Lexus, just ahead of the #38 Zent/Cerumo Lexus of Hiroaki Ishiura and Yuji Tachikawa.

Lamborghini takes GT300 pole

Pole in the GT300 class went to the #88 JLOC Lamborghini of Marco Mapelli and Kazuki Hiramine.

Mapelli, who took a class win in the 2015 Bathurst 12 Hour, lapped the Okayama circuit in 1m33.925s, less than two tenths ahead of the #21 Team Hitotsuyama Audi of Richard Lyons and Ryuichiro Tomita.

The Gainer squad gave the new generation Nissan GT-R GT3 a successful debut, with the Katsuyuki Hiranaka and Hironobu Yasuda qualifying third in team's #11 car.

GT500 Qualifying Results:

Po	Driver	Car	Q1	Q2
1	Koudai Tsukakoshi  Takashi Kogure	Honda	1'18.351	1'26.905
2	Tomoki Nojiri  Takuya Izawa	Honda	1'18.696	1'27.058
3	Satoshi Motoyama  Katsumasa Chiyo	Nissan	1'18.605	1'27.486
4	Kazuya Oshima  Felix Rosenqvist	Lexus	1'18.576	1'27.570
5	Naoki Yamamoto  Jenson Button	Honda	1'18.332	1'27.985
6	Joao Paulo de Oliveira  Mitsunori Takaboshi	Nissan	1'18.160	1'28.659
7	Yuji Kunimoto  Kenta Yamashita	Lexus	1'18.619	1'29.793
8	Tsugio Matsuda  Ronnie Quintarelli	Nissan	1'18.370	1'35.248
9	Ryo Hirakawa  Nick Cassidy	Lexus	1'18.796
10	Yuji Tachikawa  Hiroaki Ishiura	Lexus	1'18.877
11	Daiki Sasaki  Jann Mardenborough	Nissan	1'18.944
12	Hideki Mutoh  Daisuke Nakajima	Honda	1'18.992
13	Bertrand Baguette  Kosuke Matsuura	Honda	1'18.994
14	Kazuki Nakajima  Yuhi Sekiguchi	Lexus	1'19.108
15	Heikki Kovalainen  Kamui Kobayashi	Lexus	1'19.315