Yamamoto and Makino champions at the end of madness

“I have no power, I have no power!” » This famous sentence pronounced on the radio by Kazuki Nakajima driving the Toyota TS 050 n°5 before the last round of 24 Hours of Le Mans 2016 to indicate that he no longer had power was unique. Or almost. It now has its counterpart in Super GT. Toyota is still the victim.

On Sunday, during the final of the Japanese championship at Fuji, the No. 37 Toyota GR Supra KeePer TOM's of Ryo Hirakawa and Kenta Yamashita led in the last ten laps, a few seconds ahead of Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino in the No. 100 Raybrig Honda NSX . Victory and the title were at stake between the two. The Honda came back, but not fast enough to hope to win. In the last three laps, the gap even stabilized around 2,5 seconds.

Starting from pole, Ryo Hirakawa would claim his second GT 500 crown after 2017 after a race without any interruption, an extremely rare occurrence. But the unthinkable happened. At the start of the final straight of the last lap, the Toyota found itself freewheeling, with no way to accelerate. Out of gas.

The Honda passed and Yamamoto and Makino found themselves winners and champions after an incredible finish. The Toyota managed to cross the line in second position then ended up on the side of the road.

With 69 points, Yamamoto and Makino won their first title with two points ahead of Hirakawa. They will remember it.

The spectacle took place almost before the eyes of the French-speaking pilots. Sacha Fenestraz finished third in this final race with Yuhi Sekiguchi in the TOM'S Toyota GR Supra and Bertrand Baguette placed fourth alongside Koudai Tsukakoshi in the Honda Keihin. The order is reversed in the final championship ranking.

In GT300 Kiyoto Fujinami and Joao Paulo de Oliveira, second in the race, are titled in the No. 3 Nissan GT56 nine points ahead of the day's winners Hiroki Yoshida and Kohta Kawaai in a Toyota Supra.

The replay is here.

The classification of the race:

The championship ranking: