Win for Rookie pairing who aren’t rookies
SUPER GT OKAYAMA (JPN) 17 APRIL ROUND 1/8
Toyota scored victory in the opening round of the Super GT season as all three manufacturers got a car on the podium in a thrilling race at Okayama.
From pole, Rookie Racing duo Kazuya Oshima and Kenta Yamashita repeated their 2021 triumph at the former Pacific Grand Prix venue, surviving a late scare that allowed the Team Kunimitsu Honda within 1.8 seconds of victory.
Yamashita had a lead of around 10s over Naoki Yamamoto’s Honda in the closing stages, but lost time making light contact with a GT300 car that had spun following a late full-course-yellow period, allowing Yamamoto to close in.
Yamamoto was the star of the second stint as he fought his way up from fifth in the car he shares with Tadasuke Makino, including a superb double pass on the Cerumo Toyota and the Impul Nissan at the Turn 5 hairpin with 10 laps to go.
The Cerumo car of Hiroaki Ishiura and Yuji Tachikawa lost a further place to a charging Tsugio Matsuda, who booked Nissan a place on the podium on the new
Z’s debut. That was despite a disappointing qualifying showing for NISMO pair Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli, who lined up ninth but came into their own late on with their Michelin tyres holding up well in the warm spring weather.
Nissan had two cars in the top five, with the second NISMO-RUN Z of Katsumasa Chiyo and Mitsunori Takaboshi recovering from 14th on the grid to finish fifth. Less fortunate were Impul’s Kazuki Hiramine and Bertrand Baguette, who ran as high as second before tumbling to seventh, behind the leading TOM’S Toyota of Sho Tsuboi and GT500 debutant Giuliano Alesi, with a curious lack of pace in the latter stages.
Likewise dropping down the order was the SARD Toyota of Yuhi Sekiguchi and Yuichi Nakayama, who had qualified second and emerged from the pitstop phase in the same position, but was powerless to hold on and finished eighth.