A joint Bridgestone/Michelin tyre test was scheduled for last Thursday and Friday, but both days were affected by rain, and Friday's running was canned altogether owing to the poor weather.
Instead, the four cars that were supposed to run last week - the #3 NDDP Racing Nissan, the #12 Impul Nissan Z, the #17 Real Racing Honda NSX-GT, and the #37 TOM'S Toyota GR Supra - returned to Motegi on Wednesday for an additional two-and-a-half hours of running in dry conditions.
They joined the Yokohama and Dunlop runners that had booked the track for their own test ahead of the season finale at the Tochigi Prefecture venue next month.
One driver who was unavailable for the test was Sacha Fenestraz, who had to leave Japan to continue preparations for his maiden Formula E campaign for Nissan, leaving Ritomo Miyata to pilot the #37 TOM'S car solo.
Yokohama (#19 Racing Project Bandoh Toyota and #24 Kondo Racing Nissan) and Dunlop (#64 Nakajima Racing Honda) continued running on Thursday in wet conditions in what was the final day of in-season testing for the season.
Attention now turns to the SUPER GT season finale on November 6, with six crews still in theoretical title contention.
NDDP Racing Nissan pair Katsumasa Chiyo and Mitsunori Takaboshi, who ended up taking part in the Motegi test in place of usual the #23 NISMO car that usually handles Michelin/Nissan testing duties, hold a slender 2.5-point lead over Impul duo Bertrand Baguette and Kazuki Hiramine.
Autopolis winners Nobuharu Matsushita and Koudai Tsukakoshi are only four points back for Real Racing, while the only other Honda crew in contention, Team Kunimitsu (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) is 17 points back.
Both the TOM'S and Rookie Racing Toyotas (Kazuya Oshima/Kenta Yamashita) are 20 points behind with only 21 on offer at Motegi.
- Stream every qualifying session and race of the 2022 SUPER GT season only on Motorsport.tv.
