OYAMA, Japan – Nissan Super GT young stars Jann Mardenborough and Daiki Sasaki were cruelly robbed of their first GT500 win together as teammates after dominating 94 laps of the Fuji 500 mile race yesterday.
After starting fifth on the grid, Sasaki moved up to fourth in his opening stint before handing over to Mardenborough.
Quick pit work gained the duo another spot, and the former Nissan GT Academy winner then charged his way to the race lead on lap 55, passing the No.23 Motul Autech GT-R of Tsugio Matsuda.
From that point forward, the No. 12 Calsonic GT-R dominated the race with Mardenborough and Sasaki stretching their lead to more than 20 seconds.
Mardenborough completed his final stint on lap 143 of 177 to hand over to Sasaki. Sadly, six laps later, the Japanese driver had to return to the pits after losing pace.
What looked like a certain victory then turned to despair. The Team IMPUL car resumed on track after repairs but was two laps down at the finish.
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Nissan had entered the race in high spirits after dominating qualifying with four of the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT500s filling the top five spots on the grid including Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli on pole.
In the race, however, the No. 23 GT-R suffered from tire degradation and was forced to make one additional pit-stop, taking them out of contention for the race win. The Japanese/Italian combination took the checkered flag in ninth place.
Front-row starters JP de Oliveira and Mitsunori Takaboshi scored the best race finish for Nissan in sixth place.
"We began on the front row so I thought we could make it to the podium and I was aiming to be in the fight for victory," said de Oliveira. "Having had that goal, this is a disappointing result, but I feel like we gave all we had in this race. The conditions for the next round at Sportsland Sugo will be good, and so we'll be aiming for a win there."
The No. 3 GT-R of Satoshi Motoyama and Katsumasa Chiyo started fourth but suffered an off-track excursion and eventually retired with a transmission issue on lap 139.
The next round of the Super GT championship will be at Sportsland Sugo on September 15-16.
Watch highlights from a dramatic Super GT 500 mile endurance battle at Fuji International Speedway.
NISMO Calendar
August 11-12
Micra Cup, Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, Canada
August 18-19
FIA World Endurance Championship, Silverstone, UK
European Le Mans Series, Silverstone, UK
Contact
Anna Teslik
Global Motorsport Marketing and Communications Manager
Phone: +33 7 7614 7286
ATeslik@nissan-europe.com
Paul Ryan
Global Motorsport Marketing and Communications Manager
Phone: +1 678 644 0404
paul@nismosupport.com
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