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Autopolis Super GT: Cassidy/Hirakawa use team orders to win

Nick Cassidy and Ryo Hirakawa claimed victory in the penultimate round of Super GT series at Autopolis after the TOM’S Lexus squad implemented team orders late in the race.

#1 Team Tom's Lexus LC500: Ryo Hirakawa, Nick Cassidy

#1 Team Tom's Lexus LC500: Ryo Hirakawa, Nick Cassidy

Masahide Kamio

When the 300 km race got underway, Le Mans 24 Hours winner Kazuki Nakajima was immediately on the charge, passing former Formula 1 champion Jenson Button even before the field headed into turn 1.

Nakajima then reeled in the Real Racing Honda’s Takashi Kogure on lap 11 of 65, before passing the pole-sitting ARTA Honda of Takuya Izawa at the start/finish straight of the same lap to take the lead.

Within a matter of a few minutes, Nakajima established an eight-second lead up front, only to see a safety car - deployed to recover the #30 Prius - to eradicate his advantage completely.

When the race resumed, Nakajima pulled away once again and handed over the #36 TOM’S Lexus to teammate Sekiguchi at the end of lap 29.

Cassidy in the sister #1 TOM’S Lexus also pitted on the same lap, jumping the ARTA and Real Honda cars that had pitted a few laps earlier.

Cassidy had started fifth on the grid, passed Button on lap 9 and was right on the tail of the Hondas when the race was neutralised.

The two TOM’S cars maintained a stable distance until the last 10 laps of the race, when Hirakawa quickly began closing in on Sekiguchi.

And with six laps to go Sekiguchi let Hirakawa through at the hairpin, handing the defending champions their first win of the season.

The result puts them level with Jenson Button and Naoki Yamamoto in the championship heading into the final round of the season at Motegi next month.  

Meanwhile, Lexus team Bandoh was the only front-running GT500 squad to try a two-stop strategy at an abrasive circuit, with the gamble propelling Yuji Kunimoto and Kenta Yamashita on the final spot of the podium from 10th on the grid.

Cerumo’s Yuji Tachikawa and Hiroaki Ishiura made much of the headways in the first half of the race to finish fourth, making it an all-Lexus top-four.

Yamamoto put pressure on Tachikawa on the final lap of the race, but wasn’t close enough to make a move and had to settle for fifth.

Button had started the race for Team Kunimitsu in third position and dropped down to sixth as all Honda squads - which dominated qualifying with a 1-2-3 lockout - struggled in race trim.

The Englishman handed the car to Yamamoto at the first opportunity when the SC peeled in on lap 24, with the 2013 Super Formula champion showing much better pace than his Honda peers to bag six crucial points in the championship.

Real Racing Honda’s Kogure and Koudai Tsukakoshi finished next up in sixth after holding off a charging Kondo Nissan of Joao Paulo de Oliveira and Mitsunori Takaboshi.

Kamui Kobayashi nearly crashed into a barrier in the second half of the race, but took advantage of a collision between the ARTA Honda and the Nismo Nissan - which also blocked the path of Team LeMans Lexus - to finish eighth in the Sard Lexus he shares with Heikki Kovalainen.

The Team LeMans of IndyCar-bound Felix Rosenqvist and Kazuya Oshima eventually finished ninth, while Nakajima Honda duo Kosuke Matsuura and Bertrand Baguette claimed the final championship point in 10th.

Lexus repeats victory in GT300

Lexus also won in the GT300 class, with Yuichi Nakayama and Morio Nitta securing the top spot in the #96 LM Corsa RC F GT3.

Yuya Motojima and  Kazuki Hiramine finished second in the #96 JLOC Lamborghini Huracan, while Ryo Michigami and Hiroki Otsu completed the podium in their Drago Corse Honda NSX.

The championship-leading #55 ARTA BMW of Sean Walkinshaw and Shinichi Takagi climbed their way from 22nd on the grid to finish fourth.

However, Walkinshaw was involved in a collision that spun around the #25 Tsuchiya Engineering Toyota of Sho Tsuboi and Takamitsu Matsui, which led the early stages of the race from pole.

Results:

Po Driver Car Gap
1 Japan Ryo Hirakawa
New Zealand Nick Cassidy
Lexus  
2 Japan Kazuki Nakajima
Japan Yuhi Sekiguchi
Lexus 0.436
3 Japan Yuji Kunimoto
Japan Kenta Yamashita
Lexus 12.614
4 Japan Yuji Tachikawa
Japan Hiroaki Ishiura
Lexus 21.331
5 Japan Naoki Yamamoto
United Kingdom Jenson Button
Honda 21.628
6 Japan Koudai Tsukakoshi
Japan Takashi Kogure
Honda 32.944
7 Brazil Joao Paulo de Oliveira
Japan Mitsunori Takaboshi
Nissan 37.072
8 Finland Heikki Kovalainen
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Lexus 45.462
9 Japan Kazuya Oshima
Sweden Felix Rosenqvist
Lexus 48.517
10 Belgium Bertrand Baguette
Japan Kosuke Matsuura
Honda 1'00.596
11 Japan Daiki Sasaki
United Kingdom Jann Mardenborough
Nissan 1'04.447
12 Japan Tomoki Nojiri
Japan Takuya Izawa
Honda 1'12.433
13 Japan Satoshi Motoyama
Japan Katsumasa Chiyo
Nissan 1'18.125
14 Japan Hideki Mutoh
Japan Daisuke Nakajima
Honda 1 Lap
15 Japan Tsugio Matsuda
Italy Ronnie Quintarelli
Nissan 1 Lap

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