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Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO The starting grid for Sunday’s Suzuka 1000km round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge has been confirmed after a raft of penalties that shook up the qualifying order. Miedecke Motorsport/Team MPC’s Ford Mustang GT3 EVO will lead the 30-car field to green after Christopher Mies, Frederic Vervisch and Dennis Olsen set the second-best average time in Saturday evening’s three-part qualifying session. That was already enough for pole, given the three-place grid penalty incurred by the car that topped the timesheets, the No. 77 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo shared by Kaku Ohta, Maxime Martin and Luca Stolz, which was then subsequently found to have been underweight and had its lap times deleted . With the No. 77 car dropping to the back of the field and some of the other top runners from qualifying taking grid drops, the No. 45 PONOS Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Tadasuke Makino, Seita Nonaka and Takuro Shinohara is elevat...

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO The Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo has been the heaviest car hit in wide-ranging Balance of Performance adjustments ahead of this afternoon’s Suzuka 1000km. Confirmed in an updated BoP table distributed by SRO Motorsports Group, the Mercedes-AMG has been handed with a 20 kg increase in minimum weight. There have been 10 kg increases for the BMW M4 GT3 EVO, Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo and pole-sitting Ford Mustang GT3 EVO as well. The Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, which has generally struggled so far this weekend, has been given a 5 kg weight break, while the Lexus RC F GT3 gets a significant 15 kg weight reduction. There have been no power adjustments for any of the GT3 cars set to take part in the 50th edition of the Japanese enduro. The No. 77 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG of Kaku Ohta, Maxime Martin and Luca Stolz produced the fastest three-driver average in qualifying (1:58.696) and cleared the competition by nearly six-tenths of a second. However, t...

Photo: Eric Le Galliot/MPS Agency Inter Europol Competition driver Tom Dillmann has taken pole after an incredibly close qualifying session for the 4 Hours of Silverstone European Le Mans Series contest in which the top-four were separated by fewer than two tenths of a second. Dillmann continued his form from practice earlier in the morning by setting the pace aboard the No. 43 Oreca O7 Gibson with a 1:43.279 that was just a tenth faster than Adrien Closmenil managed in the No. 37 CLX Motorsport machine. Third fastest was joint points leader Oliver Gray on his first qualifying outing of the year in the No. 29 Forestier Racing by Panis car, while the very tight lead quartet was completed by the second Inter Europol entry of Reshad De Gerus. However, both Inter Europol drivers face post-race investigations that could lead to changes to the order. Rounding out the top-five was then the No. 18 IDEC Sport machine of Laurents Hoerr, while Ben Hanley could only manage tenth for the No. ...

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO Alessandro Ghiretti says he hoping to repay the faith shown in him by Porsche as he tackles the weekend’s Suzuka 1000km for the first time as part of a Pro lineup. The French Porsche-contracted driver is sharing the Bosch-liveried No. 7 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo with Ayhancan Guven and Dorian Boccolacci in what marks his first time fighting for outright honors in a marquee GT3 event. It comes amid twin campaigns in Asia for Ghiretti, who is participating in GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS as well as the Thailand Super Series, both for Absolute. Speaking after setting the fourth-fastest time in pre-qualifying on Saturday morning , Ghiretti said his aim is to put together a clean weekend, learn from his co-drivers and prove that he is deserving of more such opportunities in big races. “I want to thank Porsche and Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific for believing in me, because I know this is a really important event for th...

Source: Sports Car 365

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO Kenny Habul said he’s been grateful of the paddock support that’s rallied around his 75 Express squad, admitting they’re making a “mis-mash’ of stuff work and remains bullish on their chances of fighting for an overall podium finish in the Suzuka 1000km. The Munich-based team arrived in Japan without its container of equipment, which was shipped out in mid-June but got washed up in the South China Sea after consecutive typhoons. While its Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo was air-freighted to Suzuka, the team has had to lean on the support of local teams, including SUPER GT outfits Goodsmile Racing and Arnage Racing, among other locals, for equipment ranging from a fuel rigs to spare wheels. Fellow Mercedes-AMG squad Craft-Bamboo Racing has also assisted by letting the team use its setup pad in their garage. “We’re not used to having to borrow stuff,” Habul told Sportscar365. “We all have really nice stuff,...

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO Katsumasa Chiyo put the No. 500 Team 5ZIGEN Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 on top in Pre-Qualifying, in what marked the first day-time dry running of the weekend ahead of tomorrow’s Suzuka 1000km. The Nissan factory driver was the only driver to dip below the two-minute barrier, having reeled off a 1:59.908 lap time to edge out the No. 555 Maezawa Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo for Alessio Rovera by 0.202 seconds. Rovera was one of a number of cars to make improvements in the the closing moments of the 90-minute session. Seita Nonaka put the No. 45 PONOS Racing Ferrari third on the time charts, ahead of the No. 7 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo in fourth, while Dennis Olsen made a late-session splurge to fifth quickest in the debuting No. 64 Miedecke Motorsport By Team MPC Ford Mustang GT3 EVO. The No. 9 Bingo Racing with LM Corsa Porsche of Reimei Itou was sixth, the second quickest Bronze Cup entry to the class-leading Maezawa entry, with the Ryo...