The Calsonic Impul GT-R, one of the most recognisable GT500 cars on the grid, has won Round 4 of the 2010 Autobacs Super GT Series in Sepang. The blue Nissan won from pole, ahead of the Motul Autech GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama, Benoit Treluyer), which started the race third on the grid. Taking the final podium spot and “best of the rest” title was the Weider HSV-010 (Takashi Kogure, Loic Duval) to keep Honda fans happy.
For a cooler time in the cockpit, the race started at 4pm. Starting from pole, Tsugio Matsuda in the Impul GT-R managed to stay ahead of a pack of Honda HSV-010 pursuers and stayed in the lead until pitting at the end of lap 25. The Raybrig HSV-010 (Takuya Izawam Naoki Yamamoto) and Motul Autech GT-R temporarily took over the lead, but collided to hand the lead back to Impul with 10 laps remaining. Matsuda handed driving duties to Ronnie Quintarelli, who cruised to the team’s first win since the final race of the 2008 season.
It was an emotional win for Impul, whose founder and manager Kazuyoshi Hoshino, formerly known as “the fastest man in Japan” during his own driving career, shed tears after the race.
Lexus Team Petronas Tom’s finished eighth, two places up from their grid position. Not being among the front runners was entirely expected, as the 68kgs of ballast they were carrying was the highest in the grid. As a result, Tom’s surrendered their championship lead to Lexus Team Le Mans Eneos, who finished fourth in Sepang – the best of the Lexus SC430 teams.
The GT300 class was won by M7 Mutiara Motors Amemiya SGC7, which started the race from second. It was the fifth win for Team Amemiya at Sepang in the ten GT races held here and a big “present” for the team’s main sponsor – Johor Bahru based Mutiara Motors.
Full race results and gallery after the jump.
1 12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R - Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli - 1:50'54.084
2 23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R - Satoshi Motoyama/Benoit Treluyer - 0'13.333
3 18 Weider HSV-010 - Takashi Kogure/Loic Duval - 0'16.673
4 6 ENEOS SC430 - Daisuke Ito/Bjorn Wirdheim - 0'28.242
5 100 RAYBRIG HSV-010 - Takuya Izawa/Naoki Yamamoto - 0'30.809
6 38 ZENT CERUMO SC430 - Yuji Tachikawa/Richard Lyons - 0'54.074
7 35 MJ KRAFT SC430 - Hiroaki Ishiura/Kazuya Oshima - 0'55.339
8 1 PETRONAS TOM'S SC430 - Juichi Wakisaka/Andre Lotterer - 1'07.541
9 24 HIS ADVAN KONDO GT-R - J.P.Lima de Oliveira/Hironobu Yasuda - 1'20.339
10 39 DENSO DUNLOP SARD SC430 - Andre Couto/Kohei Hirate - 1'24.343
11 8 ARTA HSV-010 Ralph Firman/Yuji Ide - 1Lap
12 17 KEIHIN HSV-010 - Toshihiro Kaneishi/Koudai Tsukakoshi - 3Laps
GALLERY: Super GT Sepang by Nasruddin H.T. Productions
Danny Tan loves driving as much as he loves a certain herbal meat soup, and sweet engine music as much as drum beats. He has been in the auto industry since 2006, previously filling the pages of two motoring magazines before joining this website. Enjoys detailing the experience more than the technical details.
Finally a win for GTR 1-2 after the only victory at suzuka, nissan isn’t performing well this season, congratulations to nissan haha, and man the HSV is sick with that exhaust…
Well done to the GT-R teams!
Congrats to Nissan for the 1-2 win
The Eva 01 car is freaking cool
Prefer the GT formats compared to F1, at least can relate to on the road car not airplane
agree..
why like nobody go watch 1?
because of blady useless goverment dont really do & promote enough on this sports. such a big event but so little advertisement.
hsv honda really sick sound like formula 1..
At least I know these cars lapped Sepang ring faster than MotoGP…
Really !!!!…..but it need 5000 cc enjine capacity to take only 2 – 3 sec faster around the track.
seem like the GTR is more better than the new honda. better back to the drawing board for honda.
Honda not designed for max speed at straight line,it has so much downforce,so do the LFA, that’s why GT-R has chances in Sepang.
Whatever la. they still lost!!!
The Lexus SC430 was dominating the GT500 series but unfortunately all of them got weight penalty which includes the Petronas TOMS team who won the last race.
This is the most boring Japan GT i’ve ever been to..what ever happened to it? Globally economic slowdown maybe? or our govt is just plain stupid.
Always blame the govt.
ayo!!!……i thought im gonna go sepang to watch this……suddenly its already been held??!!…sumpah x perasan…….
Ichiban Impul and Nismo…
To all HSV fans, the exhaust not only sound sick but the whole car felll sick since it failed to perform