Suzuka 1000km: Absolute Racing leads rain-affected Friday sessions, 75 Express rules Night Practice

Rain defined the opening day of the 2026 Intercontinental GT Challenge Suzuka 1000km, and through the spray one car set the pace in both Friday Test Sessions: the #7 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R. Ayhancan Güven laid down the benchmark of the day early, a 2m11.077sec that nobody could touch as the weather steadily worsened. The rain let up during the night, giving Mikaël Grenier a window to set the pace in the dry, the Canadian going quickest of the day with a 2m00.395sec aboard the #75 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Test Session 1

The field met a wet track for the first run, and Güven wasted little time settling the order. His 2m11.077sec put the #7 Absolute Racing Porsche – shared with Alessandro Ghiretti and Dorian Boccolacci – clear at the top, but only just. The #77 Mercedes-AMG Team Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 shadowed him at 0.397sec, Luca Stolz, Maxime Martin and Kakunoshin Ohta keeping the title contenders firmly in the picture.

The chase was tight behind them. Team KRC’s #89 BMW M4 GT3 slotted into third on a 2m11.594sec, and the #64 Miedecke Motorsport by Team MPC Ford Mustang GT3 and #28 Craft-Bamboo Racing entry completed a top five covered by just over six tenths of a second. Further back came High Class Racing’s #86, the #96 K-tunes Racing Lexus RC F GT3 and the #9 Bingo Racing with LM Corsa Porsche, with the Ferrari 296 GT3s of #555 Maezawa Racing and #45 PONOS RACING rounding out the top ten.

The running paused under a Full Course Yellow when Jonathan Hui brought the #93 Ziggo Sport Tempesta Racing Porsche to a halt on the start-finish straight. The car was recovered to the pits for repairs.

Test Session 2

The rain grew heavier before the second session, and the lap times tumbled with it – the quickest cars now more than six seconds off their morning pace. Absolute Racing carried on regardless, Güven’s Porsche topping the sheet again at 2m17.376sec.

The wetter track reshuffled everything behind. Johor Motorsports Racing – JMR climbed to the front of the chase, the #99 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Jefri Ibrahim, Abu Bakar Ibrahim and Ben Green ending 1.012sec adrift in second – the team’s best run of the day. Team KRC’s #89 was third again, High Class Racing fourth, and the sister #2 JMR Corvette of Alexander Sims, Scott McLaughlin and Nicky Catsburg fifth. Behind them came #75 75 Express, the #77 Craft-Bamboo Mercedes-AMG, #96 K-tunes Racing, and the #69 Team WRT and #72 Harmony Racing entries.

Conditions were treacherous enough that several cars never set a timed lap at all: #80 LM Corsa, #28 Craft-Bamboo Racing, #181 Norik Racing, #81 Team Daishin and #25 Porsche Center Okazaki NK Racing all sat out a representative time. The #93 Ziggo Sport Tempesta Racing Porsche, sidelined by an engine problem in the morning, was back on track after repairs.

Combined Test Classification

Across the combined times, the #7 Absolute Racing Porsche stayed on top on Güven’s morning 2m11.077sec, ahead of the #77 Mercedes-AMG Team Craft-Bamboo Racing, #89 Team KRC, #64 Miedecke Motorsport by Team MPC and #28 Craft-Bamboo Racing. The JMR Corvettes sat further down the combined order, #2 in 22nd and #99 in 24th, the latter’s second place in the wetter second session standing as its strongest run of the day.

Night Practice

The track finally dried for the last of Friday’s running, and the pace jumped accordingly – more than ten seconds a lap quicker than the sodden afternoon. Mikaël Grenier set the benchmark, a 2m00.395sec putting the #75 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3 on top of the twice red-flagged Night Practice session. Christopher Mies kept the #64 Miedecke Motorsport by Team MPC Ford Mustang GT3 right with him, just 0.182sec back in second, and Dorian Boccolacci made it three manufacturers across the top three – his 2m00.591sec in the #7 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R showing the pace-setter of the wet sessions was in the fight in the dry as well.

Saturday qualifying

The teams return to Suzuka Circuit on Saturday, 12 September, with Pre-Qualifying from 10:40 to 12:10 before qualifying splits into three short sessions: Qualifying 1 from 17:40 to 17:55, Qualifying 2 from 18:02 to 18:17 and Qualifying 3 from 18:25 to 18:40.