Super GT champion Nick Cassidy claimed pole position for Saturday's first ever 'Dream Race', which sees the Japanese series join forces with the German DTM championship at the Fuji circuit.
It was a mixed up field that saw Audi's Loic Duval claim second place on the grid in wet qualifying conditions that many thought would favour the DTM cars, but Duval couldn't topple the Lexus which set a time of 1:41.827, just over three-tenths quicker.
Taking up third place on the grid is 2018 Super GT champion Naoki Yamamoto in his Honda NSX-GT, with Ronnie Quintarelli making it four different manufacturers in the top four as he placed his NISMO Nissan GT-R on the second row.
Following Duval as the second best placed DTM entry is Mike Rockenfeller in fifth ahead of Real Racing's Koudai Tsukakoshi and Kondo Racing's Jann Mardenborough in seventh. B-Max Nissan's Frederic Makowiecki is eighth.
A pair of Lexus LC500s, the Bandoh car of Sho Tsuboi and the second TOM'S machine of Yuhi Sekiguchi, completed the top 10.
Audi were far superior to BMW, with Rene Rast 14th and Benoit Treluyer 16th, with the best placed BMW a distant 18th – in the hands of DTM rookie Kamui Kobayashi.
Marco Wittmann was down in 19th, with Alex Zanardi bringing up the field in 22nd position.
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