For the second consecutive day, the #100 Raybrig Honda NSX-GT of Naoki Yamamoto and Jenson Button set the fastest time during the Autobacs Super GT Series’ in-season official test at Suzuka Circuit.

Under cloudy skies, the morning session got underway at 9 AM JST, and it was Button, who set a new unofficial GT500 lap record the day before, who again put Team Kunimitsu’s Honda into P1 with a best time of 1’46.672.

Tsugio Matsuda, in the #23 Motul Autech NISMO GT-R, went second-quickest with a 1’46.850, followed by defending GT500 champion Nick Cassidy, with a 1’47.154 aboard his #1 KeePer TOM’s Lexus LC500, putting all three manufacturers inside the top three in the last dry weather session.

By the time the afternoon session started at 1:30 PM JST, the rain that was in the forecast finally rolled in, so the teams were prepared to do wet-weather programmes to close out this in-season test at Suzuka.

This time, it was Yamamoto who wheeled the Raybrig NSX to P1 in a rain-soaked afternoon session, with a 1’53.565 – going almost a full second faster than Tomoki Nojiri in the #8 ARTA NSX-GT (1’54.530), and the #17 Keihin NSX-GT of Koudai Tsukakoshi (1’54.707). An all-Honda/Bridgestone top 3 in the final tune-up before the Suzuka GT 300km Fan Festival on May 20, at Honda’s home ground in Suzuka.

Just as the Raybrig NSX led both days of testing in GT500, the #2 Syntium Apple Lotus Evora MC led both days of GT300 testing as well, as the mid-engined Mother Chassis machine showed its pace around the high-speed Suzuka Circuit.

Once again, Hiroki Katoh was able to extract the most out of the Lotus, setting a time of 1’56.534, three-tenths better than his best time from Monday.

In second was the #96 K-Tunes Lexus RC F GT3, driven by Yuichi Nakayama, who’d just returned from the Nürburgring 24 Hour Qualifying Race, who was just 0.015 seconds off of Katoh’s best time in the morning session. He then went on to pace the afternoon session in the wet. Sho Tsuboi was third-fastest on the day in the #25 Hoppy Toyota 86 MC.

With no more official tests until October, the Autobacs Super GT Series’ focus turns to its two marquee races in May: The Fuji GT 500km Race on the Golden Week holiday of 4 May, and the Suzuka 300km on 20 May.

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Images courtesy of the GT Association