Sho Kobayashi and Ryohei Sakaguchi have bagged pole positions for SRO's first-ever standalone GT4 races in Asia.
The Checkshop Caymania Porsche is one of two Fanatec Japan Cup title contenders this weekend and begins its challenge in the best way possible by starting Race 1 from pole position. Kobayashi, who shares the car with Naohiko Otsuka, set consecutive fastest laps in Q1 to beat championship rival Masaki Kano by 0.358s.
Positions two to four were covered by just half a tenth, but it's the YZ Racing with BMW M Team Studie M4 that starts on the front row from D'station's Aston Martin driven by Tatsuya Hoshino - who briefly held pole - and the TGR Indonesia Supra of Haridarma Manoppo.
But while Kobayashi claimed Race 1 pole by a comfortable margin, the outcome of Q2 remained in the balance until the final flying laps. And it was ultimately Sakaguchi who prevailed by just 0.036s.
His Akiland Racing Toyota had set three fastest times up until that point but looked likely to start second behind TGR Indonesia's Supra after Seita Nonaka claimed provisional pole. However, Sakaguchi regrouped, went again and finally managed to seal top spot at his final attempt.
Masataka Inoue was 0.6s down in CREF Motor Sport's new McLaren Artura, However, that was still an impressive showing for a car that only arrived in Asia last week and lost a large chunk of practice and testing due to a fuel issue.
Comet's Mercedes-AMG and YZ Racing's BMW finished just 0.02s apart in fourth and fifth after improving on their final runs.
SRO's first-ever standalone Asian GT4 race begins at 15:40 JST today. Watch it live on SRO's GT World YouTube channel and J Sport's digital platform in Japan.
