> CarGuy Ferrari sets ominous pace up front
> Hiranaka blasts to fastest GT4 time
> Result: Official Practice
Kei Cozzolino maintained CarGuy Racing’s recent strong form by comfortably leading Official Practice at Fuji this afternoon, while Katsuyuki Hiranaka topped the GT4 leaderboard in Koshido Racing’s Toyota.
CarGuy were nothing short of spectacular at Suzuka where Cozzolino produced a masterclass to win the opening race and claimed pole position for the second. And the signs from final practice suggest that the fluro Ferrari will once again be the car beat in qualifying tomorrow.
Yuta Kamimura and Tomonobu Fujii also put their local knowledge to good use early in the hour-long session but were soon blown away by Cozzolino who set four fastest laps in succession during the first 15 minutes. His final effort – 1m39.906s – would remain unbeaten thereafter.
Nick Foster came closest to usurping the Ferrari but the championship leader still ended the day 0.8s behind in the first of Triple Eight JMR’s Mercedes-AMGs, both of which featured in the top-four. His team-mate Jazeman Jaafar was four tenths further back as well as one place behind Yogibo’s Free Practice pace-setting Ferrari shared by Naoki Yokomizo and Kiyoto Fujinami.
Kamimura and Fujii both improved on their early times to complete the top-six for Porsche Center Okazaki and D’station Racing, respectively.
Just like GT3, GT4’s fastest time was set in the first 15 minutes – Hiranaka twice lowering Friday’s benchmark en route to 1m48.461s.
Team Scala’s Mercedes-AMG, which set the fastest time this morning, finished 0.7s further back and another three tenths clear of Team GMB.
Qualifying and the weekend’s first race both take place on Saturday. Watch them live on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel.