At the first day of a two-day in-season test for the Autobacs Super GT Series at Suzuka Circuit, the #100 Raybrig Honda NSX-GT of Naoki Yamamoto and Jenson Button set the quickest time of the day, as the 2009 Formula 1 World Champion Button posted a new unofficial lap record of 1’45.787.

Button’s P1 lap from the afternoon session is 1.287 seconds faster than the GT500 course record at Suzuka, set last August by João Paulo de Oliveira during qualifying for the 2017 Suzuka 1000km.

The #38 ZENT Cerumo Lexus LC500 went second-quickest with a 1’45.903 set by defending Super Formula champion Hiroaki Ishiura, and Oliveira’s new co-driver, Mitsunori Takaboshi, went third-quickest in the #24 Forum Engineering Advan GT-R at a 1’46.177.

The best time in the morning session went to the #1 KeePer TOM’s LC500 of Ryo Hirakawa, whose best time of 1’46.542 held up as the fourth fastest time overall for Monday. Fifth fastest was the #17 Keihin NSX-GT, winner last week at Okayama, with a 1’46.606 set by Koudai Tsukakoshi.

All in total, ten out of the fifteen GT500 cars set a lap time quicker than the official GT500 lap record, which bodes well for the lap record to be officially broken for the Suzuka GT 300km Fan Festival race on 19-20 May.

Six of the 23 GT300 runners were able to eclipse the official GT300 lap record on Monday, and they were led by the #2 Syntium Apple Lotus Evora MC of Hiroki Katoh, who posted a 1’56.820 – best in the afternoon session, and best on the day overall.

Nobuteru Taniguchi in the #0 Goodsmile Hatsune Miku Mercedes-AMG GT3 set the fastest time in the morning session, and 2nd-best overall, with a 1’57.005, ahead of the #9 Gulf NAC Porsche 911 GT3-R of Keishi Ishikawa, with a 1’57.398.

At the test, James Rossiter made his first run in the #6 Wako’s 4CR LC500 for Lexus Team LeMans Wakos. Team principal Juichi Wakisaka confirmed that Rossiter will drive the Suzuka 300km in place of Felix Rosenqvist, who will be fulfilling his commitments in the FIA Formula E Championship that weekend (Rosenqvist is absent for the test as he was competing in the weekend’s Rome ePrix in Italy).

Bentley Motorsport factory driver Jules Gounon once again tested the #117 EIcars Bentley Continental GT3 ,two weeks ago, Gounon was confirmed as the third driver at EIcars Bentley for this August’s Fuji GT 500 Mile Race, alongside regulars Yuji Ide and Ryohei Sakaguchi.

The test continues tomorrow morning.

SESSION 1 TIMES >>>

SESSION 2 TIMES >>>

COMBINED DAY 1 TIMES >>>