Sasahara, whose deal to join Mugen in a second car was only announced days before the start of pre-season testing, went quickest of all in the 12-car Q2 pole shootout with a best time of 1m21.404s.
That was enough to beat Team Goh rookie Sato, who had topped his Q1 segment, by 0.264s.
Team Impul’s Ryo Hirakawa qualified best of the Toyota runners in third behind an all-Honda front row ahead of practice pacesetter Ritomo Miyata (TOM’S) and Sacha Fenestraz (Kondo Racing), who had likewise topped his Q1 group but went marginally slower in Q2.
Reigning champion Tomoki Nojiri was only sixth in the second Mugen car, 0.525s off the pace of teammate Sasahara.
Tadasuke Makino (Dandelion), Yuhi Sekiguchi (Impul), Giuliano Alesi (TOM’S) and Hiroki Otsu (Dandelion) made up the rest of the top 10.
Sho Tsuboi, who had been one of the favourites based on his pre-season test form, was only 10th-fastest of the 12 Q2 runners and had his best time erased for exceeding track limits.
That dropped…
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