Four GT500 victories in a row for Nissan in Super GT
Nissan has continued its unbeaten streak in the GT500 class in Super GT in 2016
#12 Team Impul Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3: Hironobu Yasuda, Joao Paulo de Oliveira
Fuji International Speedway, Japan: Nissan has continued its unbeaten streak in the GT500 class in Super GT in 2016 with Hironobu Yasuda and JP de Oliveira dominating at Fuji International Speedway.
Nissan has now won four races in a row with Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli winning the opening two rounds and Daiki Sasaki/Masataka Yanagida successful at the last round at Sugo.
After starting on pole, de Oliveira opened up an 11-second gap over fellow Nissan ace Satoshi Motoyama before the first safety car period.
At the restart the Brazilian again opened up a lead before handing over to teammate Yasuda on lap 33.
The No.12 was then untroubled in the run to the flag – winning by 25.424 seconds. The victory was sweet reward for Yasuda and de Oliveira who suffered a tire issue while leading with three laps to go at Fuji at the 500km race in May.
“It's a good feeling to win here. With these hot conditions and the safety car coming up at a crucial part of race when people are due to make their pit stops, you have to make the right decisions.
“I made a good restart and pulled away again but it was stressful because I had an 11-second gap and then it was back to zero.
“It was a lot of risks and hard work again and Hiro completed the race and did a great job. It was a perfect race for us.”
Despite battling with 84kg of success ballast, championship leaders Matsuda and Quintarelli held on to finish fourth to extend their points lead to 13 points.
The other two GT-Rs suffered trouble at Fuji with Katsumasa Chiyo fortunately walking away from the No.46 S Road entry after suffering a heavy impact with the turn one wall after a mechanical issue.
Last round race winners Sasaki and Yanagida battled engine trouble which forced an early retirement.
The next Super GT round is the Suzuka 1000km event scheduled for August 27-28.
NISMO Nissan
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