Four G T500 victories in a row for Nissan in Super GT

Nissan has continued its unbeaten streak in the GT500 class in Super GT in 2016 with Hironobu Yasuda and JP de Oliveira dominating at Fuji International Speedway.

Nissan has now won four races in a row with Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli winning the opening two rounds and Daiki Sasaki/Masataka Yanagida successful at the last round at Sugo.
After starting on pole, de Oliveira opened up an 11-second gap over fellow Nissan ace Satoshi Motoyama before the first safety car period.

At the restart, the Brazilian again opened up a lead before handing over to teammate Yasuda on lap 33.
The No.12 was then untroubled in the run to the flag – winning by
25.424 seconds. The victory was a sweet reward for Yasuda and de Oliveira who suffered a tire issue while leading with three laps to go at Fuji at the 500km race in May.

“It’s a good feeling to win here,” said de Oliveira. “With these hot conditions and the safety car coming up at a crucial part of the race when people are due to make their pit stops, you have to make the right decisions. I made a good restart and pulled away again, but it was stressful because I had an 11-second gap and then it was back to zero. It was a lot of risks and hard work again, and Hiro completed the race and did a great job. It was a perfect race for us.”

Despite battling with 84kg of success ballast, championship leaders Matsuda and Quintarelli held on to finish fourth to extend their point lead to 13 points.

The other two GT-Rs suffered trouble at Fuji with Katsumasa Chiyo fortunately walking away from the No.46 S Road entry after suffering a heavy impact with the turn one wall after a mechanical issue.
Last round race winners Sasaki and Yanagida battled engine trouble, which forced early retirement.
The next Super GT round is the Suzuka 1000km event scheduled for August 27-28.

Mardenborough and Hoshino Continue Fightback in GT300 class
GT Academy winner Jann Mardenborough and his Japanese teammate Kazuki Hoshino pulled out another brilliant comeback drive in the GT300 class at Fuji to score valuable championship points.
After a disappointing qualifying session left Hoshino starting 17th on the grid, the duo made strong progress throughout the race with Mardenborough on the charge towards the checkered flag to score sixth place.

“Kazuki had a great start gaining three positions but being in the pack of cars throughout his stint, he found it hard to pass as the heat hurt us with a top speed on the main straight,” said Mardenborough. “I pushed hard the whole 39 laps during my stint and ended up sixth.

We were pleased considering the successful ballast we were carrying. Our championship rivals are now heavy too. Heading into the Suzuka 1000km, we should be nearer the front as things are evened out. That is the race everybody wants to win.”

Hoshino and Mardenborough are now third in the championship, 10 points from the championship lead but ready to chase the extra points available at the longest race of the year at Suzuka.