Kovalainen and Nakayama triumph at Fuji

It had been almost a year since he had been weaned from victories on Japanese soil. This Sunday, at the end of the 300 km of Fuji, the third event contested on this track in the revamped Super GT 2020 calendar, Heikki Kovalainen, supported on the Toyota GR Supra GT500 n°39 – Team SARD by Yuichi Nakayama, ended a long drought.

The tandem, however, observed from a distance the fight for first place at the start of the race, Kovalainen rising from fifth position on the grid in the wake of the leading duo composed of the No. 500 Honda NSX-GT GT8 – ARTA of Nirei Fukuzumi and the No. 500 Nissan GT-R Nismo GT24 – Kondo Racing of Mitsunori Takaboshi.

It is after the driver changes and the pit stops that Team SARD will increase the tempo. Returning to the pitlane at the same time as the leading Honda, Kovalainen gave up his seat to Nakayama who did not wait long before getting the better of Tomoki Nojiri, relaying Fukuzumi.

Nakayama will then ensure the end of the race to win hands down ahead of the No. 500 Toyota GR Supra GT14 – Team Wako's from Oshima – Tsuboi, the latter being the author of a superb comeback in the peloton in his relay final. A result which allows the duo to take control of the Drivers' championship.

The Nojiri – Fukuzumi pair finished 3rd with the #8 Honda – ARTA ahead of the #500 Toyota GR Supra GT37 – Team Tom's from Cassidy – Hirakawa and the #500 Honda NSX-GT GT100 – Team Kunimitsu from Makino – Yamamoto.

Slowed down by a puncture at the end of the race, the No. 500 Toyota GR Supra GT36 – Team Tom's de Fenestraz – Sekiguchi only finished 12th, two ranks behind the No. 500 Honda NSX-GT GT17 – Real Racing of Bertrand Baguette and Koudai Tsukakoshi , who could do nothing to defend their first place in the ranking with the regulatory handicap (mass and fuel restrictor) allocated for this event.

The best Nissan GT-R Nismo GT500, No. 12 – Team Impul de Hiramine – Sasaki took 8th place.

Nissan can console itself with the victory in GT300 of the GT-R Nismo GT3 n°56 – Kondo Racing of Joao Paulo de Oliveira and Kiyoto Fujinami.

Discover the report of the Fuji Super GT event, in AUTO issue 2281hebdo, available tomorrow evening in digital version, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.