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Race report

Andrea Caldarelli cruises to front row in Fuji Sprint Cup

#35 Lexus Team KeePer Kraft Lexus SC430: Yuji Kunimoto, Andrea Caldarelli

#35 Lexus Team KeePer Kraft Lexus SC430: Yuji Kunimoto, Andrea Caldarelli

Hisao Sakakibara

Andrea Caldarelli rounded out the 2012 season by scoring his best qualifying result of the year at Fuji. The Italian racer cruised to 2nd place overall in the SUPER GT qualifying session for the JAF Sprint Cup, a traditional grand finale for the Japanese motorsports season.

#35 Lexus Team KeePer Kraft Lexus SC430: Yuji Kunimoto, Andrea Caldarelli
#35 Lexus Team KeePer Kraft Lexus SC430: Yuji Kunimoto, Andrea Caldarelli

Photo by: Hisao Sakakibara

Back with LEXUS TEAM KeePer Kraft, Andrea logged a best laptime of 1’30”925 in qualifying before being forced to settle for 2nd place, beaten by just 0.1 seconds by his fellow WEC and Le Mans team-mate Kazuki Nakajima. It's been a top result for Caldarelli, who continued in the great progression already displayed during his maiden Grand Touring season, with a completely different race format from his previous open-wheel experiences.

For the final round of the season, the usual driver duos were divided as the drivers entered one race each with no driver change. After having started well from the front row, Andrea was rear-ended by one of his opponents during the first lap and suffered from a broken rear diffuser.

Despite the damage, he tried to make his way back to the front but hit troubles with his tires, which are still being developed by Bridgestone and Lexus. The Pescara-based man was forced to surrender several positions and eventually rounded out the top-10.

Andrea Caldarelli

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