Saturday. Qualifying set the tone for the weekend, but did not decide the winners in advance
The opening round of the 2026 Super GT season at Okayama International Circuit took place on April 11–12, and it was already clear on Saturday that the championship would begin in highly competitive fashion. In GT500, pole position went to the No. 38 KeePer CERUMO GR Supra, with Toshiki Oyu producing the decisive Q2 lap to beat the reigning champions in the au TOM’S camp and confirm that Toyota had arrived at the season opener in formidable shape. One of the important details of Saturday was that several cars were operating in the same performance window, while GT500 rookie Rikuto Kobayashi looked unexpectedly composed on the same No. 38 entry in his first major weekend at this level. Against that backdrop, Honda’s new PRELUDE-GT showed promise rather than outright control, while Nissan remained in contention without ever looking like it had the session fully in its hands.
In GT300, the qualifying picture was even more emphatic. The D’station Vantage GT3 did not merely take pole, it effectively controlled both parts of qualifying: Charlie Fagg was quickest in his Q1 group, and Tomonobu Fujii completed the job in Q2. That was a significant statement ahead of Sunday because track position has traditionally mattered at Okayama, and Aston Martin’s one-lap consistency was matched by the impression of a very well-balanced car over a longer run. Even on Saturday, a tightly packed chasing group was already forming behind D’station, with the apr LC500h GT, HYPER WATER INGING GR86 GT, GOODSMILE AMG and several others looking ready to play the strategy card if the race developed without interruptions.
Sunday. In GT500, the No. 38 converted pole into early control, but au TOM’S won the race in the second half
In Sunday’s GT500 contest, the No. 38 did exactly what pole-sitters are supposed to do: Oyu held the lead off the start and controlled the opening phase of the race ahead of the No. 36 au TOM’S GR Supra. One of the most notable stories of the first stint, however, came from the No. 12 IMPUL Nissan Z, which charged forward from seventh on the grid and quickly inserted itself into the lead fight. The decisive phase of the race arrived after the driver changes and into the long second stint, when the reigning champions proved stronger on race pace. Sho Tsuboi turned the battle around, moved past the No. 38 and pulled clear to secure victory, while the Oyu/Kobayashi pairing, despite a highly mature and polished drive, had to settle for second. Third place went to the No. 12 TRS IMPUL with SDG Z, allowing Nissan to convert aggressive Sunday pace into a podium finish. The official result confirmed victory for No. 36, second for No. 38 and third for No. 12, while Oyu still claimed the fastest lap of the race, a detail that neatly highlighted the difference between clean-air speed and overall race execution. Tsuboi himself admitted after the finish that he had been disappointed with second in qualifying, but was confident in the car over a race stint, and that confidence proved justified.
The main conclusion from GT500 at Okayama was fairly clear. KeePer CERUMO had the edge over one lap, but au TOM’S looked more complete and efficient across the full race distance. This was not a victory created by chaos, a safety car or circumstance. The race was run in clean, dry conditions, which only made the No. 36 crew’s success more convincing. If qualifying suggested a more open contest between manufacturers, Sunday primarily underlined the depth of Toyota’s strength over a full-distance run.
In GT300, D’station completed an almost perfect weekend, while strategy shaped the fight behind
In the junior class, the No. 777 D’station Racing crew converted pole into a commanding and error-free victory. Fujii held the lead at the start with authority, and from there the team managed the pace with confidence, gradually stretching its advantage over the chasing pack. Behind the leader, the liveliest part of the race developed around the battle for second, as the No. 2 HYPER WATER INGING GR86 GT and the No. 31 apr LC500h GT spent much of the afternoon fighting over the position, while the No. 52 Green Brave briefly joined that group before losing momentum after a false-start penalty. In the middle phase, pit strategy and tyre choices moved to the forefront. Some crews gambled on changing only two tyres in an effort to reshuffle the order, and that strategic layer made GT300 more varied and dynamic than GT500 in pure race-shape terms. Yet for all the movement behind, the No. 777 never lost genuine control of the race and eventually won by more than seven seconds over the No. 2, with No. 31 apr completing the podium. For D’station, it was a first victory at Okayama, while for Fujii it marked his eleventh win in the series.
Another subplot in GT300 was the series debut of Daniil Kvyat with JLOC in the No. 88 Lamborghini. The crew opted for a strategy involving a rear-tyres-only stop, and Kvyat then used the second stint to climb through the order before sealing sixth place with a late pass on the No. 52. For a driver making his first race in Japan and his first ever GT3 start, it was an impressive debut. Even so, that individual highlight did not overshadow the bigger picture: GT300 at Okayama was won not by the car that simply started in front, but by the team that executed every part of the weekend without a weak point. D’station was the benchmark in qualifying, traffic management, stint pace and pit work.
Round summary
Okayama opened the season in a very Super GT way: not with exaggerated drama, but with high internal tension and enormous importance placed on details. In GT500, the opening round was won not by the quickest car over a single lap, but by the most complete team across the distance, au TOM’S. In GT300, victory belonged to a near-textbook performance from D’station. That leaves the opening weekend pointing in two directions at once. On one hand, Toyota has already shown championship-level execution in the top class. On the other, the density of the field behind the winners in both classes suggests that Okayama was not a final answer, but simply a very precise opening question for the 2026 season.
