Enrique Ruiz has taken pole position for the season opening Japanese V-Prix ahead of team mate Adrien Simon for a Mathershaw Porsche front row lockout, but the pair were run close by Downton's Klaas van Snelheid. Mathershaw locked out the front row with less than half a tenth between their drivers, but the Dutchman lapped just a quarter of a tenth slower than Simon to take third, far closer than many expected. Q1As became the tradition last season when the entry list expanded beyond 26 cars, qualifying began with a Q1 session to whittle the field down from 30. This year four teams will partake; with those being Cheema and AMR, then the returning Westwood and newcomers Arrow. Following on from practice, it was unsurprising when Westwood and Cheema immediately jumped to the top four places, with the only significant movement being the trading of times between their drivers. As the chequered flag fell, it was Tumo Kinnumen at the top, but with Karl Beckenbauer and Puccio Giodano just 0.026 and 0.032 behind respectively. Nikolai Milkovich was a tenth down on his team mate, but it still proved enough - though Finn Schnyder impressively managed to get within a tenth of making the grid. The Swiss driver was some three tenths quicker than the next car outside the cut-off - debutant Yakumi Takahashi - while the home favourite was three tenths clear of his team mate Rodolfo de la Fuente, though both cars were disqualified from the session due to the team missing the strategy deadline. See below for full Q1 classification: Q2With the four cars who wouldn't make the start eliminated, the serious business began. Keen to make an early impression it was rookie Dominykas Zvironas who led the field out of the pit lane and duly set the opening time of the day, though the Lithuanian was swiftly beaten. First Will Hoskins in the FIRST, and then van Snelheid, Allar Kangur, Nathaniel Powers and Simon took the top time; with Ruiz slotting into second after the first runs, just three hundredths down on his team mate. Behind the Mathershaw pair were Powers and Kangur, followed by Johan Halvosen, Felix Perez, van Snelheid, Elroy Wagner, Hoskins and Sergio Alvarez. The middle of the session saw very little change at the front, with the only notable jumps being Hoskins ahead of Wagner and van Snelheid, and the Ocelot of Hunter Ryan slotting in behind him. Times tumbled towards the back though, with the two Cheema's making progress to fourteenth and fifteenth behind Gabriele Garcia's North Star, before being swiftly displaced by the Ingram duo and Lewis Ellington. Behind them Thierry Xylander struggled to replicate his practice form from yesterday, while Marcus Thunder set aside his difficult qualifying sessions from last year to put three cars between himself and team mate Carson Davenport, who was relegated to the back row of the grid late on by an improvement from Nick Addison. As time ticked down, those at the front turned up the pace. Johan Halvosen initially pulled himself onto the second row with a time that split Powers and Kangur, only for the Estonian to match it exactly just seconds later, but by virtue of being the second driver to set the time, stayed behind. Powers improved himself by a few hundredths by couldn't get within two tenths of the Mathershaw Porsche cars as Ruiz displaced Simon at the top, taking provisional pole position by just under half a tenth. But as it looked as though the action was at end, there was one more driver with an ace up his sleeve. van Snelheid - currently mired in ninth after struggling to hook a lap up - set a personal best in sector one before an absolute best in sector two, setting himself up to potentially spoil the Mathershaw Porsche party. As the paddock watched on in somewhat surprise the chequered flag fell, and the Dutchman crossed the line, but it was a measly 0.072 off of Ruiz's pole position and only moved him up to third, confirming the Mathershaw Porsche teams front row lockout in the opening race of the season. van Snelheid is joined on the second row by team mate Powers, while Halvosen and Kangur both impressed to line up on row three ahead of the two FIRST's - led by Felix Perez - with Ryan and Wagner completing the top ten. See below for full Q2 classification, and grid for the race:
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