On his second outing for absent Kazuki Nakajima, Alesi overcame the treacherous conditions to lead an All-TOM row ahead of Ritomo Miyata in a session punctuated by no less than four red flags.
Persistent rain throughout the day on the Oita Prefecture circuit caused organizers to abandon the co-qualifying format and instead hold a single 40-minute session to determine the grid.
This was supposed to start at 2:00 p.m. local time, but bad weather forced a number of delays, with the action starting 45 minutes behind schedule.
A fall for rookie Racing driver Kazuya Oshima, exiting the long left-hander from Turn 8/9, brought the red flags to light after just five minutes, and there were further disruptions when Yuichi Nakayama of Kondo Racing spun and stopped in Speed came when Nirei Fukuzumi (Dandelion Racing) suffered a crash at Turn 17.
After this third red flag, the second generation racing driver, Alesi, set his fastest time of 1: 38.252 seconds to overtake his teammate Miyata, who set his best time before Fukuzumi’s fall, by just 0.085 seconds.
Toshiki Oyu brought the proceedings to a halt for the fourth time with an accident at the same location as Oshima, although the Nakajima Racing driver’s collision was less severe and he was able to return to the pits unaided with a badly damaged front wheel.
The session continued with 15 minutes on the clock, but the deteriorating weather in the meantime meant there was no improvement after that.
Giuliano Alesi, Kuo VANTELIN TEAM TOM’S
Photo by: Masahide Kamio
Behind the two TOM’S cars, inging rookie Sena Sakaguchi was third fastest, 0.259 seconds back, while 2019 Autopolis winner Yuhi Sekiguchi was fourth for Impul.
Sho Tsuboi and Ryo Hirakawa, the drivers’ respective teammates, completed the top 6 of all Toyota.
Front runner and defending Autopolis winner Tomoki Nojiri (Mugen) was the best of the Honda runners in seventh place, almost a second behind the pace.
Tadasuke Makino (Dandelion) qualified eighth on his comeback after an illness, ahead of Tatiana Calderon’s substitution at Drago Corse Koudai Tsukakoshi and Kenta Yamashita (Kondo).
Reigning champion Naoki Yamamoto had forgotten another qualifying session for Nakajima Racing and will start the race on Sunday in 12th place, one place ahead of Nobuharu Matsushita of B-Max Racing.
The four drivers who caused red flags have all been robbed of their time and will fill positions 16-19 on the grid.
