Fenestraz’s Podium on GT500 Return “A Result I Needed”

Sacha Fenestraz has described his eventful drive to third place in a chaotic SUPER GT season opener at Okayama as a “result I needed” as he made his return to the Japanese championship with the SARD Toyota team after two seasons away.

Together with his teammate in the No. 39 Toyota GR Supra, Yuhi Sekiguchi, Fenestraz came through from last on the grid to complete a podium lockout for Toyota behind the No. 1 TOM’S and Rookie Racing crews that finished first and second.

Sekiguchi made strong progress from 15th in the opening stint, with Fenestraz taking over on lap 46 of 82 on a fresh set of wet Bridgestone tires on a still-damp track for his first GT500 race appearance since the 2022 season finale.

However, with conditions improving in the latter stages of the race, Fenestraz pitted for slicks on lap 61, having lost two positions with an off-track excursion at Piper Corner several laps earlier that saw the No. 39 car come perilously close to the barriers.

The Argentinian driver said that a strong result in his first race back in SUPER GT — and his second in Japan following last month’s Super Formula opener — was important for him after disappointing results cost him his Formula E drive with Nissan.

“Of course, it feels good,” Fenestraz told Sportscar365. “This is a result that I needed for my own confidence after a difficult season last year. When the confidence gets higher, you drive better and better. It’s a great result.

“We were one of the first to pit for slicks, which was the right call. It was an extremely difficult first two or three laps on cold tires, but it paid off.

“It was a great strategy from the team, taking the risk of putting on slick tires quite early. We were on a different compound of wet tire initially, which meant we were quick at first but then we had a lot of degradation, way more than expected.

“From that point onwards, we were thinking about slicks, and when I heard the No. 100 [Kunimitsu Honda] took slicks, I was like, ‘let’s take the gamble’.”

Fenestraz was running sixth on the road in the final stages of the race, gaining two position in a single corner on the final lap as the Honda Civic Type R-GTs of Nobuharu Matsushita and Shun Koide battled just ahead of him.

A 10-second time penalty for the No. 37 TOM’S Toyota of Ukyo Sasahara and Giuliano Alesi then promoted Fenestraz and Sekiguchi to third.

“I knew the No. 37 had a penalty and I had the pace over the two cars ahead of me; I just couldn’t overtake because of the top speed,” recalled Fenestraz.

“I could tell from the previous lap that I was braking slightly later than them on every lap, so I knew it was an opportunity when they started fighting. When I saw Matsushita going for it, I felt that he braked too late, and that’s what happened.

“I dived up the inside and took the two positions quite easily, and we got on the podium. So I’m very happy with that.”

Despite the strong start of the season, Fenestraz warned that SARD still has a lot of work ahead to match the pace of the front-running cars on merit, and is expecting a challenging second round of the season at Fuji Speedway next month.

“We need to be careful, to not be too happy about it, because we are often quick at Okayama but at Fuji there is a lot of work still to do,” cautioned Fenestraz.

“I will push the team to keep working and not get too carried away.”