Suzuka SUPER GT – schedule, how to watch, entry list

The 52-lap Suzuka 300km precedes a two-month summer break, so success at the famous Japanese Formula 1 venue will be vital for each team to wrap up the first part of the season on a positive note.

Nissan has ruled the roost at Suzuka in recent years, with the #23 NISMO car of Ronnie Quintarelli and Tsugio Matsuda unbeaten in the last three races there, but the introduction of the all-new Z to replace the old GT-R - which was the clear class of the field at Suzuka - could change things altogether.

Honda in particular showed very strong pace at Suzuka in pre-season testing, and one of its three Bridgestone teams, the locally-based Real Racing (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Nobuharu Matsushita) comes into the race low on success ballast but high on motivation to turn around a poor start to the season.

Suzuka has also been a happy hunting ground for Dunlop in the past, so look for the NSX-GTs of Nakajima Racing (Takuya Izawa/Hiroki Otsu) and Mugen (Toshiki Oyu/Ukyo Sasahara) to likewise take advantage of their low success ballast.

In the Nissan camp, Mitsunori Takaboshi will be back in action after his huge crash at Fuji, which will only have strengthened the determination of he and NDDP Racing teammate Katsumasa Chiyo to claim their first GT500 win.

Toyota has traditionally struggled for performance at Suzuka, but Rookie Racing's championship leaders Kenta Yamashita and Kazuya Oshima will be looking to score solid points despite carrying 46kg of ballast.

In the GT300 class, GT3 cars have ruled the roost for the opening two rounds of the season, with Kondo Nissan pair Joao Paulo de Oliveira and Kiyoto Fujinami leading the championship after their win at Okayama ahead of Ryuichiro Tomita and Riki Okusa, who won last time out at Fuji.

Look for Subaru pair Takuto Iguchi and Hideki Yamauchi to make up for a disappointing showing at Fuji in their BRZ around a track that ought to favour the lighter, nimbler GT300-rules cars, as well as the so-called 'Mother Chassis' entries. Likewise, the Max Racing Toyota squad (Atsushi Miyake/Kimiya Sato) will also be hoping to emulate their 2021 success at Suzuka.

SUPER GT time schedule for Suzuka, Round 3

Times are Local/UK time (GMT+1)/EDT/PDT 

Saturday May 28

Free practice (1h45 minutes) – 9.25am/1.25am/8.25pm (Friday)/5.25pm (Friday)

Qualifying – 2.45pm/6.45am/1.45am/10.45pm (Friday)

Sunday May 29

Warm-up – 1.10pm/5.10am/12.10am/9.10pm (Saturday)

Race (52 laps) – 2.30pm/6.30am/1.30am/10.30pm (Saturday)

How can I watch SUPER GT at Suzuka?

Motorsport.tv will once again be offering full coverage of both qualifying and the race for every round of the 2022 SUPER GT season (subscription required and some geo-restrictions apply).

Commentary will be provided by Jake Sanson and Motorsport.com’s own expert Japanese racing analyst Jamie Klein.

Click here for further information, and to get your subscription now

SUPER GT entry list for Suzuka, Round 3

GT500 class: 

Manufacturer	Team	Tyre	No.	Drivers
Nissan Z GT500	NDDP Racing	Michelin	3	Katsumasa Chiyo  Mitsunori Takaboshi
	Team Impul	Bridgestone	12	Bertrand Baguette  Kazuki Hiramine
	NISMO	Michelin	23	Ronnie Quintarelli  Tsugio Matsuda
	Kondo Racing	Yokohama	24	Kohei Hirate  Daiki Sasaki
Toyota GR Supra	Rookie Racing	Bridgestone	14	Kazuya Oshima  Kenta Yamashita
	Racing Project Bandoh	Yokohama	19	Yuji Kunimoto  Sena Sakaguchi
	TOM’S	Bridgestone	36	Giuliano Alesi  Sho Tsuboi
			37	Ritomo Miyata  Sacha Fenestraz
	Cerumo	Bridgestone	38	Hiroaki Ishiura  Yuji Tachikawa
	SARD	Bridgestone	39	Yuhi Sekiguchi  Yuichi Nakayama
Honda NSX-GT (Type S)	ARTA	Bridgestone	8	Tomoki Nojiri  Nirei Fukuzumi
	Team Mugen	Dunlop	16	Toshiki Oyu  Ukyo Sasahara
	Real Racing	Bridgestone	17	Koudai Tsukakoshi  Nobuharu Matsushita
	Nakajima Racing	Dunlop	64	Takuya Izawa  Hiroki Otsu
	Team Kunimitsu	Bridgestone	100	Naoki Yamamoto  Tadasuke Makino

GT300 class:

No.	Team	Car	Tyre	Drivers
2	Inging	Toyota GR86 GT	B	Hiroki Katoh  Yuui Tsutsumi
4	Goodsmile Racing	Mercedes-AMG GT3	Y	Nobuteru Taniguchi  Tatsuya Kataoka
5	Team Mach	Toyota 86 MC	Y	Reiji Hiraki  Yusuke Tomibayashi
6	Team LeMans	Audi R8 LMS GT3	Y	Yoshiaki Katayama  Roberto Merhi
7	BMW Team Studie	BMW M4 GT3	M	Seiji Ara  Tsubasa Kondo
9	Pacific CarGuy Racing	Ferrari 488 GT3	Y	Kei Cozzolino  Takeshi Kimura
10	Gainer	Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3	D	Ryuichiro Tomita  Riki Okusa
11	Gainer	Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3	D	Hironobu Yasuda  Keishi Ishikawa
18	Team UpGarage	Honda NSX GT3	Y	Takashi Kobayashi  Kakunoshin Ota
20	Shade Racing	Toyota GR86 GT	D	Katsuyuki Hiranaka  Eijiro Shimizu
25	Team Tsuchiya	Toyota GR Supra GT300	Y	Takamitsu Matsui  Seita Nonaka
30	apr	Toyota GR86 GT	Y	Hiroaki Nagai  Manabu Orido
31	apr	Toyota Prius PHV GR Sport	B	Yuhki Nakayama  Koki Saga
34	Busou Drago Corse	Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3	D	Masataka Yanagida  Yuji Ide
48	NILZZ Racing	Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3	Y	Taiyou Ida  Yuya Hiraki
50	Arnage Racing	Toyota 86 MC	Y	Ryohei Sakaguchi  Ryosei Yamashita
52	Saitama Toyopet GB	Toyota GR Supra GT300	B	Hiroki Yoshida  Kohta Kawaai
55	ARTA	Honda NSX GT3	B	Hideki Mutoh  Iori Kimura
56	Kondo Racing	Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3	Y	Kiyoto Fujinami  JP de Oliveira
60	LM Corsa	Toyota GR Supra GT300	D	Hiroki Yoshimoto  Shunsuke Kohno
61	Subaru/R&D Sport	Subaru BRZ	D	Takuto Iguchi  Hideki Yamauchi
65	LEON Racing	Mercedes-AMG GT3	B	Naoya Gamou  Takuro Shinohara
87	JLOC	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	Y	Kosuke Matsuura  Natsu Sakaguchi
88	JLOC	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	Y	Takashi Kogure  Yuya Motojima
96	K-tunes Racing	Lexus RC F GT3	D	Morio Nitta  Shinichi Takagi
244	Max Racing	Toyota GR Supra GT300	Y	Kimiya Sato  Atsushi Miyake
360	Tomei Sports	Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3	Y	Takayuki Aoki  Yusaku Shibata

Current SUPER GT championship standings

GT500 class:

Pos.	Team/Car	Drivers	Points	Ballast
1	Rookie Racing Toyota	Kazuya Oshima  Kenta Yamashita	23	46kg
2	Kunimitsu Honda	Naoki Yamamoto  Tadasuke Makino	18	36kg
3	NISMO Nissan	Ronnie Quintarelli  Tsugio Matsuda	15	30kg
4	TOM'S Toyota	Giuliano Alesi  Sho Tsuboi	12.5	25kg
5	ARTA Honda	Tomoki Nojiri  Nirei Fukuzumi	11	22kg
6	Impul Nissan	Bertrand Baguette  Kazuki Hiramine	9.5	19kg
7	Cerumo Toyota	Yuji Tachikawa  Hiroaki Ishiura	8	16kg
8	NDDP Nissan	Katsumasa Chiyo  Mitsunori Takaboshi	6	12kg
9	Bandoh Toyota	Yuji Kunimoto  Sena Sakaguchi	3.5	7kg
10	SARD Toyota	Yuhi Sekiguchi  Yuichi Nakayama	3	6kg
11	Real Racing Honda	Koudai Tsukakoshi  Nobuharu Matsushita	3	6kg
12	Kondo Nissan	Kohei Hirate  Daiki Sasaki	1.5	3kg
13	Mugen Honda	Toshiki Oyu  Ukyo Sasahara	0.5	1kg

GT300 class (top 10):

Pos.	Team/Car	Drivers	Points	Ballast
1	Kondo Nissan	Kiyoto Fujinami  JP de Oliveira	22	66kg
2	Gainer Nissan	Ryuichiro Tomita  Riki Okusa	15	45kg
3	UpGarage Honda	Takashi Kobayashi  Kakunoshin Ota	15	45kg
4	LEON Mercedes	Naoya Gamou  Takuro Shinohara	11	33kg
5	Subaru	Takuto Iguchi  Hideki Yamauchi	9.5	29kg
6	Pacific CarGuy Ferrari	Kei Cozzolino  Naoki Yokomizo	8	24kg
7	Drago Corse Nissan	Masataka Yanagida  Yuji Ide	7.5	23kg
8	LeMans Audi	Satoshi Motoyama  Yoshiaki Katayama	6	18kg
9	Gainer Nissan	Hironobu Yasuda  Keishi Ishikawa	5	15kg
10	Goodsmile Mercedes	Nobuteru Taniguchi  Tatsuya Kataoka	4	12kg