Last weekend saw Nissan pick up its first victory with the car that replaces the old GT-R, as NDDP Racing pair Katsumasa Chiyo and Mitsunori Takaboshi stormed to a dominant victory from third on the grid.
Fenestraz started one place ahead of the #3 Nissan in his TOM'S Toyota GR Supra, but had already dropped behind Chiyo in the run to the first corner before the Nissan swept past Yuji Kunimoto's Toyota at 130R to lead the opening lap.
One corner later, Fenestraz passed Kunimoto to regain second, but he was powerless to do anything about Chiyo's advantage despite an early safety car period that bunched up the pack.
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A disappointed Fenestraz said the Nissan's speed on Michelin tyres reminded him of the start of his SUPER GT career two years ago, when Toyota's then-new GR Supra was the dominant force of the early part of the season.
"We had no chance against Michelin and the Z, they were very fast," lamented Fenestraz speaking to Motorsport.com.
"Michelin is really strong on the warm-up; compared to the #3 we lost 13 seconds on the out lap alone, which is crazy. You saw it also on the last safety car restart, after one lap they were already nearly five seconds ahead. They were on another level the whole race.
"I feel like they are in the same position as we were in two years ago with the Supra, quite far ahead of everyone. When you see the top speed, the Z has been flying on the straights, like we were two years ago."
Fenestraz however did acknowledge that the #3 Nissan having a fresh engine - after Takaboshi's huge shunt in the previous race at Fuji obliged the NDDP crew to build up a completely new car around a spare chassis - might have also contributed to the Z's apparent speed.
"After what happened to them at Fuji, it’s fair enough [that they won the race], but they have a fresh chassis, fresh engine, and no penalties for that," said Fenestraz. "The regulations say if you change chassis, it’s a penalty, so it’s a bit weird. But it’s the GTA’s decision."
Fenestraz and his teammate aboard the #37 TOM'S car, Ritomo Miyata, finally finished third after being jumped by Real Racing Honda pair Nobuharu Matsushita and Koudai Tsukakoshi in the pitstop phase.
"Definitely we should have had P2," said the Franco-Argentine driver. "We were on the harder tyre for the second stint and the tyre warm-up was really hard, and we caught out by that. We lost a lot there.
"The pitstop was not super-quick either, so everything was a bit off. It definitely cost us P2, but we didn’t have the pace to win."
