【SUPER GT Round 2 / Fuji】

Mardenborough claims Super GT maiden victory in B-Max NDDP GT-R.
Each of Yokohama shoed GT500 cars scores well-earned point finish.

SUPER GT Round 2

Date	2016/05/03-4
Venue	Fuji Speedway
Weather	Fine
Surface	Dry
Race Lap	110Laps (1Lap = 4,563ｍ)

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The second round of 2016 Super GT series, Fuji GT 500km Race, was held at Fuji Speedway where one can enjoy grand views of Mount Fuji.

The weather was fine on Tuesday – 3rd to 5th of May are public holidays in Japan – and the qualifying session on that day saw nine Yokohama shoed GT300 cars making their way into Q2. Among them, Takeshi Tsuchiya in VivaC 86 MC narrowly missed the pole position but secured the second grid, after setting some good lap times in the closing stage of Q2.

Yuji Kunimoto drove WedsSport ADVAN RC F in Q1 for GT500, only to fail to get through to Q2, as he ended the session in 11th mainly because he had difficulty with warming up the tires properly and finding a clear lap as well.

In contrast, Daiki Sasaki in Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R set the third fastest time in Q1. Masataka Yanagida at the wheel of the GT-R in Q2 did reasonably good qualifying attempts but he ended the session in seventh because other cars also significantly bettered their lap times.

The overnight rain stopped in the early morning of the race day and a bright sunshine came back well before the start of the warm up session which was run on the mostly dry track. The WedsSport backed car ran on a good pace in this session, so expectations were high for some good result in the race.

Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R started the race with Yanagida at the wheel and WedsSport ADVAN RC F with Kunimoto. Both of them kept their position where they had started the race for a while but then began to lose ground after eight laps or so.

To overcome the difficult situation, Kunimoto was instructed to come in to the pit on Lap 28, several laps earlier than planned, and the team gave Yuhi Sekiguchi a different type of tires from those his teammate had used for the first stint but it didn’t make any difference.

On the other hand, Sasaki drove for 34 laps until he changed to Yanagida. However, they lost considerable time during the pit stop. When Sasaki came in, the car had some bodywork damage due to contact with a GT300 car in the early stage. The car was still drivable but the team was ordered by race officials to repair it before rejoining the race. The extra time required for the repair work meant Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R dropped to the bottom of the field when it got back to the race.

WedsSport ADVAN RC F made its second pit stop on Lap 69 to change to Kunimoto and Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R followed its path on Lap 78, changing from Yanagida to Sasaki. Driving the damaged GT-R which no longer had proper aerodynamic behavior, Sasaki was still able to set the fastest lap of the race in his second stint.

With not a few other cars having accidents or mechanical problems, Kunimoto and Sasaki continued to do their best and finished the race in eighth and ninth respectively. This meant the two Yokohama shoed cars earned valuable championship points.

In the GT300 class, Takamitsu Matsui in VivaC 86 MC started the race from the second grid but lost a lot of ground in the first lap melee. This gave Seiji Ara at the wheel of Studie BMW M6 the second place in the early stage and he kept the position until Jann Mardenborough in B-Max NDDP GT-R overtook Ara’s M6. Soon after that, Studie BMW M6 had power steering failure and was forced to stay in the pit for a long time to repair the system.

Meanwhile, Mardenborough moved up to the top slot on Lap 30, as the race leader made a pit stop for the driver change a little earlier than others. Three laps later, the young Briton came in to the pit to change to Kazuki Hoshino.

Hoshino regained the lead position on Lap 45 and continued in a very good pace. Then the Safety Car came out on Lap 66, which actually worked in favor of the B-Max crew.

Because the other cars were about to come in when the Safety Car was deployed, they rushed into the pit lane as soon as it was opened. But Hoshino didn’t have to do so, as they made the first pit stop later than most of the opponents, and he came in to the pit three laps later than most of them, on Lap 73, to do the stop when the pit lane was almost cleared.

When Mardenborough rejoined the race, the interim leader was Tsuchiya behind the wheel of VivaC 86 MC because he and his teammate Matsui had been fighting back through the field, after losing ground in the early stage. Tsuchiya visited the pit on Lap 77 and the team sent out Matsui to the track without changing the tires to minimize the time spent in the pit.

Matsui found himself running in second, following Mardenborough’s B-Max NDDP GT-R. He later lost the position to a direct opponent but it was almost inevitable considering the difference in sheer pace between them.

B-Max NDDP GT-R eventually won the race and Mardenborough got on the highest place of the podium with Hoshino only in his second race in the Super GT series. Tsuchiya/Matsui pair in VivaC 86 MC finished in third. This meant Yokohama couldn’t repeat a podium sweep this time, yet it was another proof of the Japanese rubber’s high and consistent performance.