SUPER GT Round 4 THAILAND Chang SUPER GT RACE LEXUS LC500 Swept the Podium with a First Victory this Season

GT500 class

DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500 No.39 with drivers Heikki KOVALAINEN / Kamui KOBAYASHI achieved victory for the first time, giving the LEXUS LC500 the first win this season at the Autobacs Super GT 2018 series at Thailand Chang International Circuit.

LEXUS LC500 swept the podium with WAKO’S 4CR LC500 No.6 co-piloted by Kazuya OSHIMA / Felix ROSENQVIST in second place, followed by WedsSport ADVAN LC500 No.19 with drivers Yuji KUNIMOTO / Kenta YAMASHITA in third place.

GT300 class

TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT No.31 with drivers Koki SAGA / Kohei HIRATE finished second place.

SYNTIUM LMcorsa RC F GT3 No.60 co-piloted by Hiroki YOSHIMOTO / Ritomo MIYATA recorded third place.

DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500 No.39

DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500 No.39

SYNTIUM LMcorsa RC F GT3 No.60

SYNTIUM LMcorsa RC F GT3 No.60

Heikki KOVALAINEN (DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500 No.39)

It’s nice to win the race with Kamui-san. We had a roller coaster start at the top of the season, disaster in the Round 1 Okayama, Round 2 Fuji was a good race, and then another disaster in Round 3 Suzuka as well where I made a mistake. So we needed a good result, and we’ve been working very hard actually on the problems we had. We had a good qualifying yesterday and were able to stay in the top, so I’m very happy about that.

Kamui KOBAYASHI (DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500 No.39)

It was the first time for me to drive this circuit, so to be honest I didn’t expect to win before I came here. In the previous race at Round 3 Suzuka, I didn’t drive both the qualifying and the race. In addition, during Round 2 Fuji, I was attending the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), so actually it was a long interval since Round 1 Okayama to drive the LC500. The team has worked very hard, and I am very happy to win in this condition. I would like to thank the team for putting things together, and also appreciate Heikki for pushing and passing me the vehicle in first position. It was not an easy race, but I tried my best to maintain the position by using the margin Heikki made. Kazuya (Oshima) and Yuhi (Sekiguchi) also fought fairly in the race.

Kazuya OSHIMA (WAKO’S 4CR LC500 No.6)

We started from P11 but the pace was really good and Felix pushed us up to P2, passing the baton to me. His driving was beyond our expectation. I tried to overtake the vehicle in front of me, but the pace of No.39 was also fast, so I couldn’t take advantage of this opportunity. This is the fourth consecutive podium for the race in Thailand, which means the circuit condition is good for us, but we were not able to win this year again. We will try our best in the next race.

Felix ROSENQVIST (WAKO’S 4CR LC500 No.6)

First of all, it was a good day for Lexus with a full podium. It was good for our team also, as we had a tough time recently. We had a really good race starting from P11 and finishing in P2. Our car was really good and our tire choice was very good. Unfortunately we couldn’t win, but anyway it was a fun race and we all enjoyed. You can see all the guys are happy in the team and that’s what it’s all about. We will aim for a win in Fuji.

Yuji KUNIMOTO (WedsSport ADVAN LC500 No.19)

Kenta pushed during the first stint, and I was able to get back into the course at P3 after the driver’s change, but the rivals pace were also fast. Especially No.36 was fast and they overtook us when we were struggling in the traffic. But from last year to this year, we weren’t able to tap into a flow and could not achieve good results, so it is positive that we got P3. For the remaining race, there are circuits where we have strength, so we will continue to develop the vehicle to achieve a podium finish and a victory.

Kenta YAMASHITA (WedsSport ADVAN LC500 No.19)

I was in charge of the start, and tried to overtake the car in front with a sprint start, but got overtaken instead. The pace was not bad, and we were faster than the vehicles that were fast in the qualifying. Luckily we were able to overtake three vehicles. Unfortunately, the driving pace itself was quite different from the top two LEXUS vehicles, so this is our task to work on. Anyway, it was good that we were able to achieve a podium.

GT500 Class Result

Po No Machine Driver Laps Time/Diff Q WH
1 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500 Heikki Kovalainen / Kamui Kobayashi 66 1:36’42.825 3 30
2 6 WAKO'S 4CR LC500 Kazuya Oshima / Felix Rosenqvist 66 2.86 11 28
3 19 WedsSport ADVAN LC500 Yuji Kunimoto / Kenta Yamashita 66 12.969 6 4
4 38 ZENT CERUMO LC500 Yuji Tachikawa / Hiroaki Ishiura 66 38.836 13 36
5 16 MOTUL MUGEN NSX-GT Hideki Mutoh / Daisuke Nakajima 66 42.813 1 2
6 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R Daiki Sasaki / Jann Mardenborough 66 43.449 7 26
7 17 KEIHIN NSX-GT Koudai Tsukakoshi / Takashi Kogure 66 1’05.798 2 42
8 1 KeePer TOM'S LC500 Ryo Hirakawa / Nick Cassidy 66 1’06.628 12 52
9 64 Epson Modulo NSX-GT Bertrand Baguette / Kosuke Matsuura 66 1’10.271 14 2
10 36 au TOM’S LC500 Kazuki Nakajima / Yuhi Sekiguchi 65 1 Lap 10 28

GT300 Class Result

Po No Machine Driver Laps Time/Diff Q WH
1 11 GAINER TANAX GT-R Katsuyuki Hiranaka / Hironobu Yasuda 61 1:38’01.838 4 34
2 31 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT Koki Saga / Kohei Hirate 61 3.569 14 34
3 60 SYNTIUM LMcorsa RC F GT3 Hiroki Yoshimoto / Ritomo Miyata 61 8.712 16 20
4 65 LEON CVSTOS AMG Haruki Kurosawa / Naoya Gamou 61 9.078 1 40
5 87 LEGAL FRONTIER LAMBORGHINI GT3 Kimiya Sato / Yuya Motojima 60 1 Lap 9
6 88 MANEPA LAMBORGHINI GT3 Kazuki Hiramine / Andrea Caldarelli 60 1 Lap DSQ 30
7 0 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG Nobuteru Taniguchi / Tatsuya Kataoka 60 1 Lap 7 24
8 7 D'station Porsche Tomonobu Fujii / Sven Muller 60 1 Lap 15 40
9 34 Modulo KENWOOD NSX GT3 Ryo Michigami / Hiroki Otsu 60 1 Lap 8 6
10 96 K-tunes RC F GT3 Morio Nitta / Yuichi Nakayama 60 1 Lap 5 42
15 35 arto RC F GT3 N.Charoensukhawatana /N.Hortongkum 59 2 Laps 17
30 TOYOTA PRIUS apr GT Hiroaki Nagai / Kota Sasaki 34 27 Laps 20

Drivers Standings (GT500)

Po No Driver Total
1 39 Heikki Kovalainen 35
2 100 Naoki Yamamoto / Jenson Button 32
3 23 Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli 31
4 6 Kazuya Oshima / Felix Rosenqvist 29
5 1 Ryo Hirakawa / Nick Cassidy 29
6 38 Yuji Tachikawa / Hiroaki Ishiura 26
9 39 Kamui Kobayashi 20
11 39 Sho Tsuboi 15
12 36 Yuhi Sekiguchi 15
13 19 Yuji Kunimoto / Kenta Yamashita 13
15 36 James Rossiter 8
17 36 Kazuki Nakajima 7

Team Standings (GT500)

Po No Team Total
1 39 LEXUS TEAM SARD 44
2 100 TEAM KUNIMITSU 43
3 23 NISMO 42
4 6 LEXUS TEAM LEMANS WAKO'S 41
5 1 LEXUS TEAM KeePer TOM’S 41
6 38 LEXUS TEAM ZENT CERUMO 37
10 36 LEXUS TEAM au TOM’S 26
11 19 LEXUS TEAM WedsSport BANDOH 23

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