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.
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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