Heinrich Puts Porsche Into Suzuka 1000km Lead at Halfway

Absolute Racing’s ‘Bushi Rex’-themed Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo led the Suzuka 1000km at the halfway point as a charging Laurin Heinrich took full advantage of a safety car intervention to catch and pass the long-time leading Miedecke/Team MPC Ford.

The pole-sitting No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3 EVO had enjoyed a ten-second advantage at the head of the field after a straightforward first two stints of the race before the field was effectively reset by a full-course yellow-turned safety car early in the third hour.

That was caused by an incident exiting Turn 2 involving the No. 18 Porsche Centre Okazaki car of Hiroaki Nagai and the Maezawa Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Yusaku Maezawa, who appeared to be clipped by a spinning Nagai.

At the time, Heinrich had just taken over the No. 8 Porsche from Julien Andlauer and was running fifth behind the No. 7 Absolute car, the No. 2 Johor Motorsports JMR Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R and the PONOS Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo.

After the restart, Christoper Mies, who had not long taken over the pole-sitting Ford from a double-stinting Dennis Olsen, maintained a comfortable lead up front.

Meanwhile, Nicky Catsburg, who had taken over from Scott McLaughlin in the JMR Corvette, passed Boccolacci for second, and Heinrich picked off Takuro Shinohara in the PONOS car and then Dorian Boccolacci’s Porsche in quick succession.

Just a handful laps later, Heinrich put a bold pass on Catsburg at 130R for second, which also allowed Absolute stablemate Boccolacci to pounce at the chicane for third, and the German driver then set about pursuing his fellow countryman Mies.

Setting a new fastest lap, Heinrich reduced a 10-second cushion for the Ford to nothing within eight laps, with the pair running nose-to-tail for several laps.

What felt like an inevitable pass for the lead came on lap 90, just after the three hour, 15 minute mark, as Heinrich swooped up the inside of Mies at the long, uphill Turn 7 left-hander and led by three tenths of a second at the end of that lap.

Behind the lead pair, Boccolacci ran third, 5.9 seconds off the lead, while Catsburg held fourth in the JMR Corvette, a further three seconds behind.

PONOS, which was locked in battle with the JMR Corvette and ‘Bushi Rex’ Porsche for the second stint with starting driver Tadasuke Makino, dropped out of fifth place when Shinohara temporarily stopped along the back straight approaching 130R.

That promoted the No. 77 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, which started 28th, into fifth, 32 seconds away from the lead.

Maxime Martin carved his way from the rear of the grid to 11th in the car that had topped qualifying before being disqualified for being underweight before handing over to Kaku Ohta, who was one minute, 11 seconds in arrears before the safety car.

Shinohara moved back into sixth in the PONOS Ferrari after the Pro-Am leading LM Corsa Ferrari, the No. 80 car in which Giancarlo Fisichella is part of the lineup, pitted out of that position shortly before the halfway mark.

Joel Sturm had the High Class Racing Porsche, which was among a handful of cars to start on wet tires, in the lead of the Bronze class ahead of the Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Anthony McIntosh, as Seiji Ara was hit with a penalty in the Team Studie BMW.

Having started the race fifth, 5ZIGEN’s Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, lost four laps early on with a suspension problem that forced Katsumasa Chiyo into the pits for lengthy repairs in the opening half-hour after losing ground early on.

Another car to hit trouble was the No. 89 Team KRC BMW that had been leading the Bronze class early on before getting stuck on the still-slightly wet grass, although Tony Ruan had already been passed by Alessio Rovera’s Maezawa Ferrari at the time.

75 Express’s Mercedes-AMG became the first retirement of the race when Kenny Habul went off and hit the barriers at 130R early in the second hour, while the No. 18 Porsche was yet to rejoin the action after pitting following Nagai’s crash.