The sixth round of the 2023 Super GT held at the Sugo circuit saw important successes for the Nissan Z GT500. Let’s see all the details of the event
The sixth round of Super GT 2023 took place at the Sugo circuit, in Japan, on September 17. The No. 23 Nissan Z took second place, the No. 1 came in fourth, the No. 24 fifth and the No. 3 ninth. These results allowed all four cars to earn valuable points for the ranking championship final. Currently, with only two races remaining in the series, the Nissan Z number 3 maintains its lead in the championshipwhile number 23 took third place.
He teams Nissan/NISMO has fielded a high-level team, made up of the reigning champions of number 1 MARELLI IMPUL Z (Kazuki Hiramine / Bertrand Baguette), the series leader of issue #3 Niterra MOTUL Z (Katsumasa Chiyo/Mitsunori Takaboshi), insieme alla numero 23 MOTUL AUTECH Z (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli) and at number 24 REALISE CORPORATION ADVAN Z (Daiki Sasaki/Kohei Hirate).
2023 Super GT Round 6 Highlights: Nissan Z GT500 conquers the podium and the championship
The number 3 of Niterra MOTUL Z faced a difficult challenge due to its high weight of 98 kg, while number 23, number 1 and number 24 had lower weights, of 50 kg, 48 kg and 10 kg respectively. This set the stage for a thrilling race, as the Nissan Z GT500 team aimed for their third win of the season.
The race started at 1.30pm under cloudy skies with an enthusiastic crowd in the stands. Ronnie Quintarelli in MOTUL AUTECH Z number 23, who started second, maintained his position, while Daiki Sasaki in REALISE CORPORATION ADVAN Z number 24 e Katsumasa Chiyo in the Niterra MOTUL Z number 3 they remained in seventh and eighth position respectively. In the meantime, Bertrand Baguette in the MARELLI IMPUL Z number 1 continued to climb the rankingsreaching thirteenth position.
The race was stopped on lap 39 because of an accident. A GT500 class car went off the track in the final corner, causing extensive damage. After an interruption of just under an hour, the race resumed at 3.20pm with the Safety Car who led the group. Competition is resumed at full speed on lap 45. After the dance of pit stops, which involved all the cars in the GT500 class, number 23 was third, number 24 fifth, number 3 seventh and number 1 eighth.
Final stages: podium for Niterra MOTUL Z and heart-pounding comeback for MARELLI IMPUL Z
In the final stages of the race, Tsugio Matsuda, who was in third position, maintained a gap of about a second from the leading car. During the 78th lap, the driver he attempted to overtake the car in front on the straight after the last corner, but was unable to complete the maneuver. Ultimately, the No. 23 Nissan Z finished in third place.
Number 1, led by Kazuki Hiramine, made a remarkable comeback. By lap 51, the number 1 had reached ninth position and in the following laps he made important overtakings. On lap 67 Hiramine overtook the number 24 by take fifth place, a notable comeback if we consider that he started from fourteenth position. Consequently, the number 24 finished the race sixthwhile the number 3 only finished in tenth placethus earning a point.
After the race, a new inspection led to the disqualification of the car that had achieved the victory, and the rankings of all cars have been updated. In the classroom GT300 five cars competed NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT3. Number 10 PONOS GAINER GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda/Riki Okusa), who started from eighth place on the grid, finished ninth. All five other GT-Rs successfully completed the race. This was Nissan’s adventure in Sugo. In order not to miss future news regarding the world of motors and the technological universe in general, continue to follow techgameworld.com!