Kunimitsu Honda Prelude Wins Red-Flagged Fuji 300km

Honda and Team Kunimitsu scored victory in a Fuji 300km SUPER GT race that was stopped in the early stages for a major crash involving Igor Fraga.

Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino scored their first win of the year, and a first for the new Honda HRC Prelude-GT in only its third GT500 race, bringing to an end a three-race winning streak for the title-winning No. 36 TOM’S Toyota GR Supra.

The pole-sitting No. 8 ARTA Honda of Kaku Ohta and Hiroki Otsu was second after Ohta made a late charge to close within six tenths of  a second by the finish, while the No. 37 TOM’S Toyota of Ukyo Sasahara and Giuliano Alesi, completed the podium.

Rain prior to the start meant the race began behind the safety car, but after the pack was released on lap five, it was quickly red-flagged after a major crash involving Fraga’s Nakajima Racing Honda, which flew into the air along the main straight after three-way contact with the Nissan Z NISMOs of Bertrand Baguette and Mitsunori Takaboshi.

Fraga remained conscious as he was extricated from the stricken No. 64 car, and while he appeared to avoid serious injury he was taken to hospital as a precaution.

Team Impul driver Baguette meanwhile was handed a 90-second stop-and-hold penalty for having been deemed to cause the accident, which also left Takaboshi’s NISMO car with front-left corner damage that put it well out of contention.

Once the race began in earnest after a 35-minute delay, Otsu was passed immediately at Turn 1 by fellow Honda driver Yamamoto for the lead, as Yuto Nomura settled into third place aboard another of the new-for-2026 Preludes, the Real Racing car.

The top two remained in that order until the pit stop phase, but Nomura was demoted from third to fifth before the end of his stint as Sasahara pulled off a sensational double pass to grab third and Rikuto Kobayashi moved up a place in the Cerumo Toyota.

Ohta pitted to hand over to Ohta on lap 24 of 66, while Yamamoto handed over to Makino a lap later, but Sasahara was able to gain enough ground before pitting on lap 29 for Alesi to resume in second ahead of Ohta.

At this stage it looked as if Makino would be on for a straightforward run to the checkered flag as Alesi kept Ohta bottled up in the battle for second, but Ohta was able to make use of GT300 traffic to pass the Toyota at Turn 10 on lap 59.

A six-second lead for Makino was then quickly reduced in the closing stages, with Ohta starting the final lap just one second adrift, but in the end Makino was able to hang on to deliver Kunimitsu its first victory since last year’s Autopolis round.

Alesi was just 1.4 seconds away from the win in third, leading a 3-4 for TOM’S as the No. 36 car of Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita came through from 11th on the grid to finish fourth despite its nominal handicap of 80 kg.

Koudai Tsukakoshi brought home the Real Racing Honda for fifth after dropping behind Tsuboi late on, while Toshiki Oyu secured sixth for the Cerumo Toyota.

With the Rookie Toyota of Nirei Fukuzumi and Kazuya Oshima finishing seventh, it means Tsuboi and Yamashita maintain a 20-point advantage in the championship, with Makino and Yamamoto jumping to third in the standings.

Nissan failed to score points as the only one of its three cars not to be involved in the start incident, the Kondo Racing car, finished in 11th.

Saitama Green Brave Toyota Battles to GT300 Victory

In the GT300 class, an entertaining battle for honors was resolved in favor of the Saitama Green Brave Toyota GR Supra GT of Seita Nonaka and Hiroki Yoshida.

That was after a ferocious side-by-side battle following the pit stop phase between Yoshida and Shintaro Kawabata aboard the PONOS Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, which led for most of the distance having annexed pole position on Saturday.

While Takuro Shinohara controlled the early stages in the PONOS Ferrari, Nonaka was busy making progress from sixth on the grid, ultimately passing Shunsuke Kohno’s LM Corsa Lexus LC500 for second before Shinohara pitted from the lead on lap 31.

Nonaka left it until lap 41 to hand over to Yoshida, gaining the advantage by changing front tires only in the pits, but the veteran only barely clung to the lead after a lengthy side-by-side battle with series returnee Kawabata.

Once free of the PONOS driver, Yoshida went on to win by 7.8 seconds, scoring Saitama Green Brave’s first win since its title-winning 2023 season, with Nonaka — who replaced Kohta Kawaai from the following year — taking his first class win.

Kawabata was then drawn into a three-way battle for second with Zak O’Sullivan in the CarGuy MKS Ferrari and Hiroaki Ishiura in the Rookie Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

Ishiura managed to navigate his way by both Ferraris to take second for himself and Toyota junior Tokiya Suzuki, while O’Sullivan also fought his way past Kawabata to score his first podium of 2026 alongside another Toyota youngster, Kiyoshi Umegaki.

Fuji Golden Week winners Joao Paulo de Oliveira and Iori Kimura completed the top five aboard the Kondo Racing Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.

It’s a result that promotes the pair to third in the championship, two points behind seventh-place finishers Yuui Tsutsumi and Kazuhisa Urabe in the Inging Toyota GR86 GT, who are level with Yoshida and Nonaka at the head of the points table.

RESULTS: GT500/GT300