Nissan achieves treble at Suzuka

Used to fighting for the first places, the GR Supras suffered a lot in the Mie prefecture. Disadvantaged by a “weight handicap” greater than the rest of the grid, the mounts of Toyota were unable to do anything against the Honda NSX-GT and Nissan GT-R.

Third on the grid, the duo Tsugio Matsuda-Ronnie Quintarelli (Motul Autech) of the GT-R No. 23 took advantage of the retirement of the polemen, Takuya Izawa and Hiroki Otsu (Honda NSX-GT No. 64), and a good refueling at mid-race, to place in 3^e position behind Nissan No. 3 (Kohei Hirate-Katsumasa Chiyo) and No. 12 (Kazuki Hiramine-Nobuharu Matsushita). This is when Tsugio Matsuda enters the scene…

At the wheel of a GT-R with incredible pace, the local of the event takes the scalp of Kazuki Hiramine in 30^e lap before stealing that of leader Kohei Hirate 11 laps later. “ Every time I run here in my home prefecture of Mie, I feel like I have extra strength in me “, he will explain later. In very good form, the driver of the No. 23 was never caught, finishing more than ten seconds ahead of his closest pursuer. “ I am very happy that I was able to control my car and the tires, continues Matsuda. I think it was the best race of my entire career, including car. » And to Ronnie Quintarelli to continue. “ Like last year here, Nissan provided us with an incredible car to achieve a third success in a row at Suzuka. I was disappointed to lose a place during my stint, but Tsugio had a fantastic race ».

Already over the moon for its first victory of the season, Nissan leaves with its suitcases full since its GT-Rs hit hard at Suzuka. The No. 3 of Craftsports and No. 24 of Realize corporation (Mitsunori Takaboshi-Daiki Sasaki) indeed finished on the podium of this 4^e round of the season. Hat trick.