Impul's Baguette relieved to survive "wild" Okayama opener

Impul Nissan duo Baguette and Kazuki Hiramine came home seventh on the road in a race interrupted and ultimately cut short by three red flags, but were later promoted to sixth when the #16 ARTA Honda was hit with a penalty.

That was after the defending champions could only qualify 12th, Hiramine struggling to get his Bridgestone tyres up to temperature in a first segment of qualifying on Saturday held on a wet track.

Similar issues occurred in the race, causing Baguette to initially go backwards at the start in dry conditions, but he was able to make up ground before the weather took a turn for the worse.

However, the Impul Nissan was one of four cars to be caught out by the pitlane closing under full-course yellow on lap 16, undoing Baguette's hard work and forcing him to go on the offensive again before handing over to Hiramine.

"I struggled a lot with the warm-up at the beginning on the first two laps for some reason, but once the tyre was up to temperature I came back," Baguette told Motorsport.com. "I had some nice fights in the dry and when it started to rain, but I was behind the two TOM’S cars [in eighth].

"Unfortunately we made the decision to pit for wets a lap too late, and the pits closed under FCY. We lost a lot of time in that phase of the race. After that I had a good fight with the #3 [NDDP Nissan of Katsumasa Chiyo], but in the end the Michelins were just way stronger.

"Once we were on slicks, Kazuki struggled a lot with the warm-up like I did at the beginning. We lost one position [to the Cerumo Toyota] and that was where we finished. It was quite a wild race, so it’s good we survived. 

"The target [pre-race] was to do P5. From P12 on the grid, P7 is ok, nothing special, but it’s still a few points for the championship."

#1 MARELLI IMPUL Z

Photo by: Masahide Kamio

Baguette previously said he expected Bridgestone to put up a tougher fight against the Michelin-shod NISMO Nissans that finished first and second, but the Japanese tyre maker opted against using the new tread pattern it brought to pre-season testing at Fuji.

"In the wet Michelin still has the advantage, we still have to work on that," conceded Baguette. "But the pace was not bad at all compared to the other Bridgestone users.

"Nothing is lost, there’s still a long way to go. We finished P7 here last year as well. What's important is to be in the title fight at the end of the season. It could have been better, but it’s not bad."

The arrival of rain before the start of the pit window on lap 26 meant Baguette was able to stay on board the #1 Impul Nissan longer than he would do in a typical 300km race, only finally handing over to Hiramine on lap 42 of what turned out to be a 62-lap race.

But he said he found the decision to red-flag the race on lap 55 to be strange considering the conditions at that time.

"Some of the red flags I didn’t understand," said the Belgian. "The first one, they said it was thunderstorms, but it was not raining that much. But then at the end it was raining way more [before the race was stopped again].

"I wish we could have raced a bit longer, but that’s how it is."

Join Motorsport.tv to watch the full SUPER GT Okayama race on replay here.