Cassidy and Hirakawa win with instructions at Autopolis

The Honda NSX-GTs had largely dominated qualifying, but the face of the Autopolis race was very different, with the domination of the Lexus LC 500 from Team TOM'S before the outcome of the race is visibly decided with internal instructions.

It is first of all the n°36 – Team at TOM'S Kazuki Nakajima and Yuhi Sekiguchi who had taken control of the event by successively passing the three leading Honda NSX-GTs, including that of championship leaders Jenson Button and Naoki Yamamoto (Team Kunimitsu) and that of polemen Takuya Izawa – Tomoki Nojiri (ARTA).

Nakajima quickly built up a good lead, which was briefly wiped out by the entry of a safety car. After the change of drivers, Sekiguchi retains control of the event ahead of the Lexus LC 500 n°1 – Team KeePer TOM'S of Ryo Hirakawa, associated with Nick Cassidy, returned in second position.

The latter, much better placed in the championship, will benefit from the stable instructions in the last ten laps, Sekiguchi letting Hirakawa pass, who won and returned to a tie in the championship with his teammate Cassidy against the Jenson Button – Naoki Yamamoto duo, fifth this Sunday behind a Lexus quartet.

The podium is in fact completed by the n°36 – Team au TOM'S from Nakajima – Sekiguchi, the n°19 – Team WedsSport Bandoh from Kunimoto – Yamashita and the n°38 – Team Zent Cerumo from Tachikawa – Ishiura.

In GT300, victory also went to Lexus, with the #3 RC F GT96 of Mario Nitta – Yuichi Nakayama.

Discover the full report of the Autopolis Super GT event, in issue 2188 of AUTOhebdo, available tomorrow evening in digital version and this Wednesday on newsstands.