This left the #3 Niterra Z, which had first come in on lap 30 and changed drivers from Chiyo to Mitsunori Takaboshi, to assume the lead. He drove out on cold tyres and overran turns one and two enough to let Sakaguchi slink past him and back into what would be the net lead of the race. Two laps later, Miyata brought the #36 au Supra in for its final pit stop. Sakaguchi stayed on board for his double stint while Mie Prefecture’s own Tsugio Matsuda took over the #23 Motul Z. On lap 46, both the leading #19 WedsSport Supra and the second-placed #23 Motul Z came in for their final pit stops. The Belgian got out of the car for Kazuki Hiramine to take it to the chequered flag. And the #23 Motul Autech Z of Ronnie Quintarelli, who started eighth, jumped up several places by pitting on lap 18 and overtook Miyata on his out lap to assume third place.īaguette closed the gap down to just under a second before he brought the Marelli Z in for its second and final pit stop on lap 42. Meanwhile, the #1 Marelli Z of Baguette had jumped to second by pitting on lap 19. The undercut allowed Sakaguchi to assume the race lead. Kunimoto handed the controls of the #19 over to his young team-mate Sena Sakaguchi, and Ritomo Miyata, who’d been named as Toyota Gazoo Racing’s newest WEC Challenge driver just days before the start of the weekend, took over from Tsuboi in the #36. Kunimoto brought the WedsSport Supra in from second position on lap 26, while Tsuboi in the au Supra continued to lead until the end of his stint on lap 29. The man on the move at this stage was Katsumasa Chiyo in the #3 Niterra Motul Z: He started 12th, but had worked his way up to eighth place before the first GT500 car made its pit stop on lap 19. Tsuboi continued to lead after the restart, while Kunimoto stuck with him in second. The GT300 class #18 UPGarage Honda NSX GT3 (Takashi Kobayashi/Syun Koide) lost its right-rear tyre and came to a stop at the NISSIN Hairpin, bringing out a Full Course Yellow and then a Safety Car. Bertrand Baguette started fourth in the #1 Marelli Impul Nissan Z, then overtook the #100 Stanley Honda NSX-GT of Tadasuke Makino at the Hitachi Astemo (Triangle) Chicane to grab third place. The 2021 series champion earned the right to start up front in the #36 au TOM’s Toyota GR Supra.įrom the drop of the green flag on Sunday, Tsuboi led the GT500 field and was determined to break away, while Kunimoto held onto second place, hoping to keep the WedsSport Supra up towards the front after many strong qualifying performances turned to poor race results. Meanwhile, Sho Tsuboi qualified on pole position for the first time as a GT500 driver. His 13th career pole ties him with Kota Sasaki and Shinichi Takagi. History had been made in Qualifying on Saturday, 3 June: Hideki Yamauchi tied the all-time record for career GT300 pole positions when he put the #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport at the top in time trials. Yuji Kunimoto and Sena Sakaguchi were declared the winners of a shortened Suzuka 450km race after a frightening accident, a red flag at three-quarters’ distance, a protest from over half the GT500 grid, a time penalty, and an unsuccessful counter-protest. For the first time in nearly seven years, TGR Team WedsSport Bandoh and the famous blue and gold #19 Toyota have won a race in SUPER GT’s top class! More than a week after the race ended under a red flag, the results are now official from both classes of the Autobacs SUPER GT Series’ Suzuka GT 450km Race.
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