July 25,2010
- SUPER GT Round 5 Race Report -
July 25th, Sportsland SUGO (Miyagi prefecture)
Round 5 of SUPER GT took place on Sunday, July 25 at Sportsland SUGO (Miyagi prefecture, 1 lap - 3.704kms). Winners the last time out, the CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R (#12 Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli) took 4th. Qualifying 11th amongst a field of 13 cars, the HIS ADVAN KONDO GT-R (#24 Joao Paolo de Oliveira/Hironobu Yasuda) finished fifth. Starting from pole, the MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (#23 Satoshi Motoyama/Benoit Treluyer) built up a big gap to 2nd place, leading the race until lap 74 when tyre debris from the car in front hit the kill switch, suddenly knocking out power to the vehicle and stopping the engine. Though the car was able to restart, it finished in sixth place.Topping the timesheets from GT500 qualifying was the #23 GT-R. In the previous day's Super Lap qualifier, Benoit Treluyer was 0.4 seconds away from his nearest rival in 2nd place as he secured pole position. He set the top time once again in the free practice session, held on the morning of race day. Despite temperatures of 35 degrees in the morning, as the formation lap got underway at 2pm, clouds filled the sky above the circuit and the heat had decreased to 32 Celsius. Once the race started, Treluyer maintained a very quick pace in the #23 GT-R, crossing the start/finish line after the first lap some three seconds ahead of the 2nd-placed car. After that, he built up the gap with every lap, and had a margin of over 30 seconds by the time he pitted on lap 50 to hand the car over to his teammate Satoshi Motoyama. On a circuit that sees its fair share of accidents, the #23 GT-R protected its position to run trouble-free, even when rain started to fall at the halfway point and other competitors went off track or made contact with backmarkers. With 31 laps remaining, if he set stable lap times, the probability of victory was thought to be high. However, on lap 74, with over 90% of the race run, Motoyama suddenly stopped on track. Until he restarted, time was being lost. According to Motoyama, "The engine's main power died suddenly. Turning on the switch a little while later, the power came back on and the car restarted." After having verified the car and images from the car's in-car camera after the race, it was found that tyre debris from the preceding vehicle hit the car's kill switch. Therefore, it was not trouble from the car, but an accident that befell the #23 machine, causing it to lose 60 seconds before being able to re-start and finish in sixth place. 
Winners of the last round, the #12 GT-R was saddled with a massive 66kgs' success ballast, and driver Matsuda would start from 6th on the grid. An accident at the start saw the car quickly rise to 4th, and then increase its position to third, and eventually 2nd. Pitting on lap 45, Quintarelli took over, returning to the race in fifth place. Due to the trouble that befell the #23 GT-R, the #12 machine finished in fourth. In regards to the title, Team Director Hoshino clasped the hands of his drivers and shared some words of appreciation.The HIS ADVAN KONDO GT-R (#24 Joao Paolo de Oliveira/Hironobu Yasuda) qualified and started the race in 11th. However, with the car working perfectly, it passed two rivals on the opening lap. The car then moved up to 7th place on lap 3. Start driver Oliveira then experienced a moment of brain fade, but he held on to run fifth. Teammate Yasuda returned to the race in 6th position, and through a mistake-free run, increased that to score fifth by the flag. #12 GT-R driver Tsugio Matsuda's comment: "Despite some regret at finishing fourth, in terms of the championship we're in good shape, so that is good. Also, Ronnie drove excellently in his stint. As for the races in the series' second half, we plan on persevering for the title. As a first step, we'd like to take a major points-haul at the next round, the Suzuka 700 kms." #12 GT-R driver Ronnie Quintarelli's comment: "I'm happy that in such a heavy car we were able to finish fourth, and move up to third in the rankings. At Suzuka, the pair of us will be aiming to take as many points as possible, and to really push in the two remaining races. Throughout a very hot yesterday and today, I'd like to say thanks to all our fans for their support. Please continue your powerful support for us at Suzuka." #23@GT-R Team Director Yutaka Suzuki's comment: "It is most regrettable to have missed out on winning due to such an incident on what had, up to then, been a perfect race. However, continuing on from Sepang, we were able to confirm the performance of the car, keeping the motivation of both the drivers and team very high. We have shown superb development for the coming race at Suzuka, where we very much want to win. Please continue giving us your support." |
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NISSAN MOTORSPORTS |
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