Baguette announces exit from Honda SUPER GT fold
Bertrand Baguette has announced that last weekend's Fuji Speedway finale was his final outing as a Honda SUPER GT driver.
The Belgian driver has been part of Honda's GT500 roster since he first joined the Nakajima Racing squad back in 2014, and since 2019 he has been part of the Real Racing outfit.
He won a total of four races in that time, and secured a best finish in the standings of third last year alongside Real teammate Koudai Tsukakoshi.
"After eight years together, Fuji was my last race as a Honda driver," Baguette wrote on social media. "I’ve learned a lot, made good friends and I’ll take with me many great memories. A page turns and I will keep you posted about my plans for the future very soon."
Baguette was signed by Nakajima as a replacement for the retiring Ryo Michigami back in 2014, making the full-time move to Japan after two seasons racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship - with a star turn at Fuji in 2013 putting him on the radar of Satoru Nakajima.
Initially struggling with the uncompetitive Dunlop tyre, Baguette's persistence paid off in 2017 when he and Kosuke Matsuura won the Suzuka 1000km, which remains the tyre firm's most recent GT500 victory.
After one more season at Nakajima, Baguette finally earned a promotion to Bridgestone squad Real Racing in 2019, and despite an up-and-down campaign he and Tsukakoshi finished as top Honda crew in the standings.
Last year he and Tsukakoshi won their first two races a duo to put together a title challenge that went down to the final race, and the pair added to their tally in this year's Fuji 500km round in May.
Baguette and Tsukakoshi went into last weekend's final round at Fuji with an outside chance of the championship, trailing pre-race points-leader Naoki Yamamoto by eight points, but an early accident for Baguette while trying to make up for lost ground ended the team's hopes.
The news opens up a prime spot in the Real Racing line-up for 2021. Current Impul Nissan driver Nobuharu Matsushita has been linked to the vacant seat alongside Tsukakoshi.
Why Honda’s ‘back-up’ car was powerless to stop Toyota
SUPER GT veteran Hiranaka departs Gainer after 13 seasons
“Proper send-off” for MacNeil after Rolex 24 win in GTD Pro
Jules Gounon says that winning at Daytona was an appropriate way for co-driver Cooper MacNeil to retire from racing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
HPD boss "amazed" by GTP reliability in Rolex 24 at Daytona
The boss of Honda Performance Developments has expressed his amazement at the high levels of reliability demonstrated by the all-new GTP prototypes in last weekend's Rolex 24 at Daytona.
How MSR took Acura to the first win of sportscar racing's new era
After much anticipation, the new dawn for sportscar racing got underway with a result that mirrored the pattern of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship's previous DPi era. Here's how Acura once again took top honours in the Rolex 24 at Daytona with a 1-2 led by Meyer Shank Racing.
Why WTR Acura lacked pace to beat MSR in Rolex 24 showdown
Wayne Taylor Racing's Filipe Albuquerque admits that he knew it would be a tall order to beat the sister Acura of Meyer Shank Racing in the closing stages of last weekend's Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.