Suzuka SUPER GT: Quintarelli scores vital pole for Nissan

At the wheel of the Michelin-shod #23 Nissan Z, Quintarelli scored he and Matsuda's first pole since the 2019 Fuji round, and also becoming the first non-Toyota polesitter of the 2022 season.

The Italian took the top spot with a best time of 1m45.169s at the end of the Q2 pole shootout to beat the #17 Real Racing Honda NSX-GT of Nobuharu Matsushita by 0.180 seconds.

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Honda had topped Q1 courtesy of the Dunlop-equipped Mugen car of Toshiki Oyu, but teammate Ukyo Sasahara couldn't quite match Oyu's pace in Q2 and ended up third-fastest on a 1m45.442s.

The Racing Project Bandoh Toyota GR Supra that had been on pole for the last three races was only fourth this time around in the hands of Yuji Kunimoto, followed by the Cerumo Toyota of Yuji Tachikawa.

Kohei Hirate was sixth in the Kondo Nissan Z, while the Q2 order was completed by the SARD Toyota of Yuichi Nakayama and Tadasuke Makino aboard the Team Kunimitsu Honda.

None of the three cars carrying stage one fuel flow restrictors made it out of the opening phase of qualifying.

Katsumasa Chiyo came closest to doing so in the #3 NDDP Racing Nissan that won at Suzuka in May, but had to settle for ninth, Ritomo Miyata was 11th aboard the points-leading #37 TOM'S Toyota and Kenta Yamashita ended up down in 14th place in his Rookie Racing Supra.

GT300: Gainer on top, Subaru struggles

Pole in the GT300 class went to the #10 Gainer Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 of Ryuchiro Tomita, Riki Okusa and Yusuke Shiotsu.

Okusa had taken pole for SUPER GT's previous visit to Suzuka in May, only to fail post-qualifying technical inspection, and the rookie was the man to beat again this time around, posting a 1m56.995s to outpace the Max Racing Toyota GR Supra of Atsushi Miyake by 0.054s.

Takashi Kogure was third-fastest at the wheel of the #88 JLOC Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo, followed by the championship-leading Kondo Racing Nissan GT-R of Kiyoto Fujinami - despite carrying 100kg of success ballast - and Tatsuya Kataoka in the Goodsmile Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

The championship-leading Subaru, carrying 89kg of ballast after its Fuji win, dropped out of Q1 in the hands of Takuto Iguchi and will start down in 22nd place, one place ahead of the Team Studie BMW M4 GT3.

GT500 qualifying results:

Pos.	No.	Car	Drivers	Team	Tyre	Time
1	23	Nissan	Tsugio Matsuda Ronnie Quintarelli	NISMO	M	1'45.169
2	17	Honda	Nobuharu Matsushita Koudai Tsukakoshi	Real Racing	B	1'45.349
3	16	Honda	Toshiki Oyu Ukyo Sasahara	Mugen	D	1'45.442
4	19	Toyota	Yuji Kunimoto Sena Sakaguchi	Racing Project Bandoh	Y	1'45.582
5	38	Toyota	Hiroaki Ishiura Yuji Tachikawa	Cerumo	B	1'45.674
6	24	Nissan	Kohei Hirate Daiki Sasaki	Kondo Racing	Y	1'45.811
7	39	Toyota	Yuichi Nakayama Yuhi Sekiguchi	SARD	B	1'45.893
8	100	Honda	Naoki Yamamoto Tadasuke Makino	Kunimitsu	B	1'46.118
9	3	Nissan	Katsumasa Chiyo Mitsunori Takaboshi	NDDP Racing	M	1'46.008 (Q1)
10	8	Honda	Nirei Fukuzumi Tomoki Nojiri	ARTA	B	1'46.025
11	37	Toyota	Sacha Fenestraz Ritomo Miyata	TOM'S	B	1'46.055
12	36	Nissan	Giuliano Alesi Sho Tsuboi	TOM'S	B	1'46.103
13	64	Honda	Takuya Izawa Hiroki Otsu	Nakajima Racing	D	1'46.154
14	14	Toyota	Kenta Yamashita Kazuya Oshima	Rookie Racing	B	1'46.211
15	12	Nissan	Bertrand Baguette Kazuki Hiramine	Impul	B	1'46.260