The Latest Breaking News from Nirei Fukuzumi

After qualifying for last week’s Golden Week classic, there would have been short odds on a Honda victory, with NSX-GT crews starting first and third. Without a power steering issue for the #8 ARTA car, it might have been three Bridgestone Honda squads starting ahead of the #36 TOM’S Toyota…

The #16 ARTA car that had qualified third and ran second in the early stages in the hands of Nirei Fukuzumi was penalised for a second race in a row for an infraction at its first pitstop, with a drive-through demoting Fukuzumi and Hiroki Otsu to 10th place.

Two-time champion Nojiri posted a 1m21.196s at the end of the seven-minute Q2 pole shootout to take his 15th career pole by a margin of nearly four tenths of a second ahead of Ritomo Miyata.

TOM'S driver Alesi was fighting the ThreeBond machine of Fukuzumi for eighth place in the closing stages of the 41-lap race when the pair came to blows approaching Turn 1 at the start of lap 36.

Having qualified third on the grid, Lawson passed the TGM car of Toshiki Oyu following a safety car restart on lap eight of 41 before settling in behind pole-sitter and Mugen team-mate Nojiri.

Having qualified third on the grid, Lawson passed the TGM car of Toshiki Oyu following a safety car restart on lap 8 of 41 before settling in behind pole-sitter and Mugen teammate Nojiri.

ARTA took the covers off its new designs on the eve of this weekend's final official pre-season test at Fuji Speedway, with its #8 and #16 cars sporting two different colour schemes representing 'day and night'.

After joining forces with Team Mugen during the off-season, ARTA has expanded to two Bridgestone-shod Honda NSX-GTs for the 2023 season as it bids for a first GT500 title since 2007.

SUPER GT pre-season testing times have always been tricky to get a read on, but the introduction of the new for 2023 carbon-neutral fuel (CNF) has made it harder than ever to discern which of the three GT500 manufacturers has the advantage.