Motegi Super GT: Lexus locks out front row for decider

Sekiguchi posted a 1m35.964s in the #36 TOM'S Lexus he shares with Kazuki Nakajima in the dying moments of the pole shootout to take his second pole of the year.

Points leader Yamashita fell just 0.035s short to grab second, boosting his and Kazuya Oshima's hopes of wrapping up the title as their nearest rivals in the championship, Nick Cassidy and Ryo Hirakawa, qualified their #37 TOM'S Lexus fourth.

Yamashita and Oshima lead by seven points, meaning a second-place finish would be good enough to seal honours for the LeMans squad even if the #37 car wins.

Nissan's title hopes came to an end as Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli, having gone into qualifying having to take pole to keep their slim chances alive, took third in the factory NISMO Nissan GT-R.

Matsuda topped the opening part of qualifying in the #23 Nissan but a lock-up from Quintarelli in Q2 left the Italian 0.164s shy of pole.

Best of the Hondas was the Real Racing NSX-GT of Koudai Tsukakoshi in fifth, ahead of Yuji Tachikawa's Cerumo Lexus and Narain Karthikeyan's Nakajima Racing Honda.

The remaining Q2 runner, the ARTA Lexus of Takuya Izawa, didn't set a time after pulling off the track with a mechanical problem.

Jenson Button was knocked out in Q1 in his final qualifying appearance in SUPER GT.

The Briton, who announced earlier this week he will not be back for a third season in the series next year, could only muster the 11th-fastest time in the #1 Team Kunimitsu Honda NSX-GT he shares with Naoki Yamamoto, 1.053s off the pace.

Also eliminated in the opening phase of qualifying was the Sugo-winning B-Max Nissan driven by Frederic Makowiecki, who was one place ahead of Button in 10th.

Heikki Kovalainen's SARD Lexus was slowest in Q1 in the hands of Yuichi Nakayama, while the Impul Nissan didn't appear at all owing to an engine problem.

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Palou broke the Motegi class track record with his time of 1m45.907s in the car he shares with Seiji Ara, 0.126s faster than Kazuki Hiramine in the Kondo Racing Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 that was driven in Q1 by Sacha Fenestraz.

Points leaders Nirei Fukuzumi and Shinichi Takagi need to finish fifth to be certain of the title, and Fukuzumi put the ARTA Honda NSX GT3 in exactly that position behind Naoki Gamou in the LEON Mercedes-AMG GT3 and Katsuyuki Hiranaki in the GAINER Nissan.

Fukuzumi and Takagi's nearest rival in the standings, K-Tunes Lexus pair Morio Nitta and Sena Sakaguchi, will start down in 17th as Nitta failed to make it out of Q1 after spinning at the final corner - and almost being wiped out by oncoming traffic.

GT500 results:

Pos.	No.	Team/Car	Drivers	Q1	Q2
1	36	TOM'S Lexus	Kazuki Nakajima Yuhi Sekiguchi	1'36.841	1'35.964
2	6	Team LeMans Lexus	Kazuya Oshima Kenta Yamashita	1'36.885	1'35.999
3	23	NISMO Nissan	Tsugio Matsuda Ronnie Quintarelli	1'36.353	1'36.128
4	37	TOM'S Lexus	Ryo Hirakawa Nick Cassidy	1'36.565	1'36.228
5	17	Real Racing Honda	Koudai Tsukakoshi Bertrand Baguette	1'36.878	1'36.430
6	38	Cerumo Lexus	Yuji Tachikawa Hiroaki Ishiura	1'36.586	1'36.993
7	64	Nakajima Racing Honda	Narain Karthikeyan Tadasuke Makino	1'37.064	1'37.028
8	8	ARTA Honda	Tomoki Nojiri Takuya Izawa	1'36.780	1'54.637
9	19	Bandoh Lexus	Yuji Kunimoto Sho Tsuboi	1'37.078
10	3	B-Max Racing Nissan	Kohei Hirate Frederic Makowiecki	1'37.349
11	1	Team Kunimitsu Honda	Naoki Yamamoto Jenson Button	1'37.406
12	24	Kondo Racing Nissan	Mitsunori Takaboshi Jann Mardenborough	1'37.431
13	16	Mugen Honda	Hideki Mutoh Daisuke Nakajima	1'37.799
14	39	SARD Lexus	Heikki Kovalainen Yuichi Nakayama	1'38.014
15	12	Impul Nissan	Daiki Sasaki James Rossiter	no time