Matsuda, Quintarelli Win at Fuji

Photo: Super GT

Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli won the Fuji GT 500 km race on Friday, the second round of the Super GT season.

The NISMO drivers inherited the lead in the second and final pit stops and remained out front for the rest of the 110-lap race at Fuji Speedway.

Quintarelli started from third but moved into the lead at the start, passing polesitter Yuji Tachikawa’s Lexus Team Zent Cerumo car.

Heikki Kovalainen and Sho Tsuboi then went on to inherit the lead on Lap 23 and remained out front for a while until the NISMO crew’s quick pit work put Quintarelli and the No. 23 Nissan GT-R back out front.

Kovalainen and his Lexus Team SARD car came home in second, almost ten seconds behind the leader.

Tachikawa and Hiroaki Ishiura completed the top three in their Zent Cerumo Lexus LC 500, meanwhile.

The highest-placed Honda NSX-GT was the Autobacs Racing Team Aguri entry driven by Tomoki Nojiri and Takuya Izawa, finishing eighth.

Sean Walkinshaw and Shinichi Takagi took the GT300 class win from pole position in their No. 55 BMW M6 GT3.

Their lead was helped by a retirement for the R&D Sport Subaru BRZ of Takuto Iguchi and Hideki Yamauchi, who had been running in second for most of the race.

It was the second consecutive win from pole at Fuji for Takagi and Walkinshaw.

RESULTS: Fuji GT 500 km

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.