Baguette: Last-to-Podium Charge Offers Hope for 2025

Bertrand Baguette says he and Team Impul teammate Kazuki Hiramine’s charge from last on the grid to a podium finish in last weekend’s Suzuka SUPER GT finale offers hope of a more competitive season for the Nissan squad in 2025.

Baguette and Hiramine rounded off a tough season aboard the No. 12 Nissan Z NISMO by finishing third, putting themselves sixth in the final drivers’ standings.

That was after a disastrous qualifying session in which Hiramine was forced into a spin at the final chicane to avoid a slow Nirei Fukuzumi’s Rookie Racing Toyota at the final chicane in Q2, an incident for which Fukuzumi was handed a grid penalty.

But a rapid tire change as Baguette pitted on lap 17 of 51 to hand over to Hiramine and fast warm-up lap enabled the No. 12 car to make big progress up the order, capped off by Hiramine’s pass on Honda driver Naoki Yamamoto at the chicane for third.

“I don’t know why we qualified so far back, that’s a mystery for us,” Baguette told Sportscar365. “In the race we weren’t that fast, just consistent.

“I saved a lot of fuel, and the pit stop was really fast. We had strong tire warm-up as well, so we were able to undercut a lot of people. Some people struggled with the warm-up, but we didn’t at all, so that made the difference I think.

“Tire warm-up was key, and we chose a tire based on that.

“It’s a nice way to end the collaboration with Marelli. The weekend didn’t start well, but really proud to go from P15 to P3.”

Baguette added that he was unhappy about the last-minute decision by race organizers to add an additional formation lap in the chilly conditions, which meant the race distance was cut from the originally-scheduled 52 laps to 51.

“I was a bit pissed about the extra formation lap at the beginning, because in the rules it says two, and suddenly they decided three,” the Belgian said.

“That’s unfair on those who chose the tire for [the conditions]. Maybe if we had a different tire we could have qualified better. But in the end the tire choice was correct.

“We qualified at the back but finished at the front, so that’s the most important.”

Baguette and Hiramine were consistent top-six finishers in their third season together at Impul, but third place in mixed conditions marked the 2022 title-winning pairing’s only other trip to the podium until the final round.

Qualifying was often a struggle for the No. 12 duo, as the Impul Nissan never qualified higher than fifth – making Baguette and Hiramine the only drivers in the GT500 class not to qualify at least once in the top three all season.

Baguette described the season as “really bad” when asked to reflect on 2024 as a whole, but added he was optimistic for 2025 based not only on he and Hiramine’s charge to the podium at Suzuka but also the performance of the No. 3 NISMO Nissan, which was in a position to challenge for victory until a spin for Atsushi Miyake.

“I was really happy to see that,” said Baguette. “It means there is potential in the car, which is the most important thing.

“We will have a new monocoque next year; our current one is quite old, so hopefully it will be a fresh start and we can fight for the championship.

“Definitely, it cannot be worse than this year. I don’t know how we managed to finish P6 in the championship, it’s crazy after the year we had.”

Asked if he felt Impul would be in a position to take the fight to the all-conquering TOM’S Toyota team that won the title at Suzuka, Baguette replied: “We did it once in 2022, we are the last team to beat them, so why not again next year?”