Toyota Locks Out Top Five in First Fuji Sprint

Toyota locked out the top five positions in Saturday’s opening leg of the Fuji SUPER GT sprint weekend, as Sho Tsuboi extended he and Kenta Yamashita’s points lead by taking the second win of the season for the No. 1 TOM’S GR Supra.

Tsuboi started the race second behind Sena Sakaguchi’s Racing Project Bandoh Toyota after losing out to the Yokohama-shod No. 19 car in the morning’s qualifying session, but was able to pass Sakaguchi for a lead he wouldn’t lose on lap 6 of 35.

The Cerumo Toyota of Toshiki Oyu proved Tsuboi’s closest rival, finishing 2.529 seconds behind in second, while the No. 37 TOM’S car of Ukyo Sasahara completed the podium in third place, having started down in 11th.

It means Tsuboi and Yamashita, who will drive the No. 1 car on Sunday, now have an extended 13.5-point championship lead over Sasahara and Giuliano Alesi.

Sakaguchi held on to the lead at the start, as Oyu went on the attack and briefly passed Tsuboi for second, only to lose the place later round the opening lap.

Further behind, Kazuya Oshima spun the Rookie Racing Toyota at Turn 3 on the opening lap and hit the barriers, bringing out the safety car.

When the race restarted on lap 6, Sakaguchi was powerless to hold Tsuboi at bay, as the TOM’S driver pounced exiting Turn 1 and heading down to Turn 3, with Oyu following through at the hairpin to pass Sakaguchi for second.

That was how the order remained for the remainder of the race, as Sakaguchi settled into third before coming under pressure from the SARD Toyota of Sacha Fenestraz and Sasahara in the second of the TOM’S GR Supras later on.

Fenestraz eventually passed Sakaguchi for third on lap 26, with Sasahara doing so shortly afterwards, but Fenestraz was hit with a five-second penalty for having overtaken the No. 3 Nissan of Daiki Sasaki by going off-track at Turn 3 on the opening lap.

That demoted Fenestraz to fifth place behind Sasahara and Sakaguchi.

Bertrand Baguette emerged as best of the non-Toyota drivers, finishing sixth in the Team Impul Nissan Z NISMO, ahead of Tadasuke Makino in the best of the Honda Civic Type R-GTs, the Team Kunimitsu machine.

Makino finished eighth on the road behind Sasaki’s NISMO-run car but was promoted to seventh after Sasaki was also penalized for forcing Fenestraz off the road.

Completing the top ten were two more Hondas, the Real Racing machine of Shun Koide and the best of the ARTA cars, the No. 8 of Tomoki Nojiri.

Fagg Delivers D’station Aston Martin GT300 Win

Charlie Fagg took victory in a thrilling GT300 battle in the D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, coming out on top in a three-way battle against the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos of Tatsuya Kataoka and Naoya Gamou.

The opening stages were led by the pole-sitting Inging Toyota GR86 GT of Hibiki Taira, but it wasn’t long before Taira began to come under pressure, initially from the Subaru BRZ of Hideki Yamauchi that had started alongside on the front row.

Fagg, up from fourth on the grid, passed Yamauchi for second on lap 10, and after sticking close to Taira, was able to pass to take the lead on lap 21.

However, as Taira slipped backwards, Kataoka moved up to second in the Goodsmile Racing Mercedes-AMG, while Gamou in the LEON Racing Mercedes-AMG passed both Taira and Rikuto Kobayashi’s CarGuy Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 for third.

That set the stage for a close-fought end to the race, but Kataoka and Gamou battling allowed Fagg the breathing space he needed to secure his second victory in the car he usually shares with Tomonobu Fujii by just 0.785 seconds.

It moves Fagg and Fujii up to second in the championship, 9.5 points behind LEON duo Gamou and Togo Suganami.

Kobayashi hung on for fourth place in the CarGuy Ferrari, while Taira lost another place on the final lap to the Saitama Green Brave Toyota GR Supra of Hiroki Yoshida.

Yamauchi faded to an eventual eighth in the Subaru, passed on the final lap by Yusuke Shitotsu in the Team Mach Toyota 86 Mother Chassis.

Fuji Round 2 winner Roberto Merhi had been in the mix for the podium places at the start, but was handed a penalty for an illegal pass on Kobayashi at the safety car restart, with the Team LeMans-run Velorex Ferrari finally finishing 15th.

SUPER GT’s Fuji sprint weekend continues with standalone 50-minute timed races for the GT300 and GT500 classes on Sunday, which are due to take place at 2:15 p.m. local time (1:15 a.m. EDT) and 4:50 p.m. (3:50 a.m. EDT) respectively.

RESULTS: GT500/GT300