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Jamie Klein

Winning Nissan penalised after mass protest, Bandoh Toyota wins

Katsumasa Chiyo and Mitsunori Takaboshi were initially declared the winners of the 450km race after it was cut short for a huge crash involving the sister NISMO car of Tsugio Matsuda and the JLOC Lamborghini Huracan of Kosuke Matsuura.

That was by virtue of the fact the NDDP crew had not completed its second mandatory refuelling stop when the crash occurred on lap 59 of 77.

With the race not resuming after the red flags were shown, Chiyo and Takaboshi were listed as winning by 31 seconds ahead of the Bandoh Toyota GR Supra of Yuji Kunimoto and Sena Sakaguchi in the provisional results.

However, a protest was lodged against the winning car by almost all the other GT500 teams, with only ARTA and Kondo Racing not doing so.

The NDDP Nissan was consequently handed a 60-second penalty to compensate for not completing its second stop, dropping the pair to fourth in the final standings and handing victory to the Bandoh Toyota.

Following last year's crash-shortened Fuji race, SUPER GT officials had suggested that in the event of a red flag any car that had not completed both of its mandatory refuelling stops would be penalised.

As a result of the penalty, the Bandoh team, Kunimoto and tyre supplier Yokohama take a long-awaited first victory since 2016, while Sakaguchi gets his first GT500 win.

The #36 TOM'S Toyota of Sho Tsuboi and Ritomo Miyata was promoted to second ahead of the Team Impul Nissan of Bertrand Baguette and Kazuki Hiramine.

The Team Kunimitsu Honda of Yamamoto and Makino remained fifth after the penalty was applied, missing out on fourth by a little over a second.

With second place, Tsuboi and Miyata move into the lead of the championship on 36 points, seven ahead of Chiyo and Takaboshi.

UPDATE: It was announced after the revised results were issued that NDDP Racing has expressed an intention to appeal its penalty, meaning the results will remain provisional until the appeal can be heard.

Suzuka 450km - GT500 race results (revised):

Po No Car Driver Team Time/Gap Tyre
1 19 Toyota

Japan Yuji Kunimoto
Japan Sena Sakaguchi

Racing Project Bandoh 58 laps Y
2 36 Toyota

Japan Sho Tsuboi
Japan Ritomo Miyata

TOM'S 2.094 B
3 1 Nissan

Japan Kazuki Hiramine
Belgium Bertrand Baguette

Impul 25.303 B
4 3 Nissan

Japan Katsumasa Chiyo
Japan Mitsunori Takaboshi

NDDP Racing 28.218 M
5 100 Honda

Japan Naoki Yamamoto
Japan Tadasuke Makino

Kunimitsu 29.555 B
6 14 Toyota

Japan Kazuya Oshima
Japan Kenta Yamashita

Rookie Racing 41.713 B
7 16 Honda Japan Nirei Fukuzumi
Japan Hiroki Otsu
ARTA 49.071 B
8 24 Nissan Japan Daiki Sasaki
Japan Kohei Hirate
Kondo Racing 1'20.858 Y
9 17 Honda

Japan Koudai Tsukakoshi
Japan Nobuharu Matsushita

Real Racing 1'28.614 B
10 38 Toyota

Japan Yuji Tachikawa
Japan Hiroaki Ishiura

Cerumo 1'33.012 B
11 37 Toyota

Japan Ukyo Sasahara
France Giuliano Alesi

TOM'S 1'35.161 B
12 8 Honda

Japan Tomoki Nojiri
Japan Toshiki Oyu

ARTA 1'42.345 B
13 23 Nissan

Japan Tsugio Matsuda
Italy Ronnie Quintarelli

NISMO 1 lap M
14 64 Honda Japan Takuya Izawa
Japan Kakunoshin Ota
Nakajima Racing 1 lap D
15 39 Toyota

Japan Yuhi Sekiguchi
Japan Yuichi Nakayama

SARD 1 lap B
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