While he was a title contender with Honda and Real Racing in both 2020 and ‘21, it’s clear that Baguette is truly relishing his new role as a Nissan driver alongside Impul teammate Kazuki Hiramine, who was so instrumental in completing an unbelievable comeback from 15th and last aboard the iconic #12 Calsonic-liveried Z on Sunday.
“Kazuki did an amazing job,” gushed Baguette post-race, having watched Hiramine close down and pass his old partner Koudai Tsukakoshi three laps from home. “He was really impressive, he did a hell of a job and I’m really proud to be his teammate.”
The narrative for Impul was looking quite different on Saturday after Hiramine had qualified at the rear of the GT500 pack in 15th, albeit with the caveat that all 15 cars were covered by a scant 1.041s (less than one percent) in an unbelievably close Q1 session.
But Baguette still had some confidence that a comeback could be possible.
“The race pace was really good, and I think it will be even better at the end of the race when the temperatures are a bit lower,” he said that evening. “Hopefully we can be a bit lucky with safety cars and full-course yellows, and you can always come back.”
That was exactly what happened when a crash for the Max Racing Toyota Supra GT300 car happened just as Hiramine came in for his second stop on lap 49 of 77, effectively vaulting the Impul Z from 13th to fourth - a position from which Hiramine battled his way to victory, underlining his credentials as one of Nissan’s most impressive GT500 performers.
Baguette’s time aboard the #12 car on the other hand was mostly one of frustration. After being a gifted a place by Kenta Yamashita’s opening-lap spin in the Rookie Racing Toyota, he spent lap after lap stuck behind Sacha Fenestraz’s TOM’S GR Supra in the battle for 13th, only finally clearing the erstwhile championship-leading car on lap 15 after an earlier attempt around the outside at 130R had ended in near-disaster.
“I got stuck behind Sacha for so long,” recalled Baguette. “[Approaching 130R] we went side-by-side and I thought he would lift because I was a little bit in front, and I tried to turn in and I saw he was still there, so I had to correct and I ran wide and nearly crashed.
“They had the [stage one] fuel flow restrictor but they were still so fast in a straight line… they were really fast in 130R as well, so it was really difficult to pass. At one point I was just saving fuel because there was nothing I could do, it took me a while to find the opportunity.
“[After passing Fenestraz] I came back on the #39 [SARD Toyota of Yuhi Sekiguchi] really quickly, but when I caught up I had a drop in front grip and I got stuck again. So that was it, and I just saved as much fuel as possible to the end of my stint.”
Baguette says he never considered pitting even while stuck behind Fenestraz as it was his mission to get as far into the race as possible before handing over to teammate Hiramine at the first round of pitstops, which he finally did on lap 33.
“It’s the job that doesn’t look good from the outside, but it helps the team a lot; It’s a bit like [Tadasuke] Makino last year, he was looking stupid but he was saving so much fuel,” said Baguette, referring to the usual division of labour at leading Honda outfit Team Kunimitsu.
While fortune with the timing of the safety car undoubtedly played into Impul’s hands, it was a very different story to, for example, NISMO pair Ronnie Quintarelli and Tsugio Matsuda’s victory at Suzuka in 2020, when Matsuda exited the pitlane in the lead and managed to hang on for the rest of the race.
After all, the SARD Toyota enjoyed similar luck with its pitstop, but having opted not to change tyres Yuichi Nakayama didn’t have the pace to threaten for victory, although he did hassle a struggling Tsukakoshi for second.
“Even if we qualified last, the race pace was really strong, especially the first 20-25 laps of each stint,” underlined Baguette. “The safety car helped us come back from P15, but if the race pace was not good, we still could not have won. The race pace was the key.”
Second at Fuji earlier in the month had already put Baguette and Hiramine among the list of championship contenders, but their Suzuka win has put the pair 10.5 points clear at the head of the standings with three races to go, elevating them to the status of title favourites even if they face next month’s Sugo race with a stage three fuel restrictor.
With the first win as a Nissan driver ticked off, Baguette made it clear that, after two years of near misses with Real Racing and Honda, delivering Impul boss Kazuyoshi Hoshino a first drivers’ title since 1995 is now the sole objective for he and Hiramine.
“After Round 3 at Suzuka it was not looking so good,” said the Belgian, who was the victim of a throttle sensor issue that weekend. “But with second at Fuji and winning here, now we’ve gone from nowhere in the championship to P1.
"It takes some kind of pressure off our shoulders to at least get a win this season, but now for sure we want more. We want to be champions and we will do everything we can to achieve that target. It would be amazing for me and Kazuki to give that [the championship] to Hoshino-san and all the team.”
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