Honda Fastest as 11-Car Sepang GT500 Test Begins

Photo: Honda

Honda led the way on the opening day of testing for the new SUPER GT season as 11 GT500 cars gathered at Sepang International Circuit for the first running of 2025.

The four-day test, which began on Sunday and runs through Thursday (with a rest day on Tuesday), is being attended by the majority of GT500 teams, with four Toyota GR Supras, four Nissan Z NISMOs and three Honda Civic Type R-GTs taking part.

Leading the timesheets across six hours of running on Sunday was the No. 100 Team Kunimitsu Honda, as Naoki Yamamoto set the quickest time in the three-hour evening session that featured night-time running, running from 5 p.m until 8 p.m. local time.

Yamamoto’s best lap of 1:48.996 put him 0.204 seconds clear of the second-placed No. 24 Kondo Racing Nissan driven by Tsugio Matsuda that uses Yokohama tires.

It was also quicker than the benchmark time from last year’s Sepang test, a 1:49.227 set by Toyota driver Sho Tsuboi.

Bertrand Baguette was third-fastest aboard the best of the Bridgestone-shod Nissans, the No. 12 Impul car, with a best time of 1:49.492.

Fastest in the opening session that ran from noon until 3 p.m was the No. 64 Nakajima Racing Honda on Dunlops, with Takuya Izawa setting the best time of 1:49.552.

That was good enough for fourth overall ahead of the No. 14 Rookie Racing Toyota and the No. 90 Toyota test car, which was being shared by Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita.

Next up were two more Toyotas, the No. 37 TOM’S car and the Yokohama-shod No. 19 Racing Project Bandoh machine, ahead of the No. 230 NISMO test car driven by newly-announced No. 23 pairing Katsumasa Chiyo and Mitsunori Takaboshi.

The No. 16 ARTA Honda, in which all four of the team’s drivers are taking turns at the wheel this week, was 10th, while the No. 3 Nissan propped up the timesheets.

Daiki Sasaki turned his first laps at the wheel of the No. 3 car following news of his promotion to NISMO’s second car in place of Takaboshi last Friday.

Testing continues for a further six hours on Monday with an identical schedule to Sunday, while the timetable for Wednesday and Thursday features only daytime running.