Round 3 of the 2025 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series, the “SUPER GT MALAYSIA FESTIVAL 2025” was held on June 28th (Sat.) at Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit (one lap 5,542 m x 55 laps). In the first Malaysia round since 2013, this official SUPER GT Round 3 race saw the GT500 class 4th-position grid starting No. 37 Deloitte TOM’S GR Supra (Ukyo Sasahara/Giuliano Alesi) chose a successful strategy of holding off longest to make its pit stop to take its first victory since Round 6 of last season. In the GT300 class, the pole-starting No.18 UPGARAGE AMG GT3 (Takashi Kobayashi/Yuto Nomura) gave up the lead at one point only to battle back to take a pole-to-win victory, aided in part by a rival’s mistake.

In the only overseas race of this season, and the first round held at Malaysia’s Sepang Circuit since 2013, the SUPER GT MALAYSIA FESTIVAL 2025 attracted many fans from not only Malaysia but also from Japan. The many fans gathered this day watched performances of the national anthems of both Malaysia and Japan before the start of the two formation laps at 4:30 in the afternoon to start the 55-lap 300 km race full of intense competition.

At the start, the pole-sitting car No. 19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto/Sena Sakaguchi) took the initial lead. But No. 19 was then caught and passed by the No. 8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT #8 (Tomoki Nojiri/Nobuharu Matsushita) that had started from 2nd position on the grid, thus making it first to cross the control line at the end of the first lap. Following them in 3rd position came the No. 64 Modulo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Takuya Izawa/Riki Okusa) that had started from 3rd position on the grid.

However, No. 64 was then caught and passed on the 7th lap by Sasahara in the No. 37 Deloitte TOM’S GR Supra (Ukyo Sasahara/Giuliano Alesi) that had started from 4th position on the grid, thus bringing it into 3rd position. After being passed here, No. 64 was also passed by the No. 12 TRS IMPUL with SDG Z (Kazuki Hiramine/Bertrand Baguette) that had started from 6th position the No. 17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Syun Koide) starting from 7th position.

Meanwhile, the leading car No. 19 managed to build a lead of 2.057 sec. by the 5th lap. However, after that car No. 8 began to close in on the 9th lap until it caught and passed No. 19 to take the lead. What’s more, No. 8 built a lead of 2.963 sec. over No. 19 by the 11th lap, after which it continued to hold a lead of about 3 sec. over the following laps until it made its pit stop on the 21st lap and then return to the race with no mistakes.

Running now in 2nd position, No. 19 made its pit stop on the 20th lap and car No. 12 now in 4th position made its pit stop on the 23rd lap. However, car No. 37 now running in 3rd position continued running out on the track until it moved into the tentative top position. It then ran on to be the last car in the GT500 class to make its pit stop on the 32nd lap.

Just before making his pit stop, the starting driver Sasahara in car No. 37 made a concerted effort to gain time by pushing the pace while running more than 10 laps longer than the other cars, which would also mean time saved in the car’s refueling. With the lead still intact, the wheel of car No. 37 was handed over to Alesi for the second half.

Although it had held on to the lead, the newly changed tires on car No. 37 were still cold, making things tough for a while on the first lap out of the pit. It was clear that Nojiri in car No. 8 was closing in fast. Here, Alesi in car No. 37 needed to carefully control his not yet warmed up tires to hold off No. 8’s charge. While doing this and that, car No. 37’s tires gradually began to gain stronger grip, and immediately Alesi turned this into the advantage that fresh tires could bring, and suddenly his lead began to grow. With this, No. 37’s lead grew from 1.4 sec. around the 34th lap to 7 sec. by the 45th lap and then 9 sec. by the 48th lap.

After this, No. 37 gave the pursuing pack absolutely no chance to close in, as it expanded its lead to 19 sec. by the end of the races’ 55th lap to take its first win of the season. For the No. 37 Deloitte TOM’S GR Supra (Ukyo Sasahara/Giuliano Alesi) this was its first victory since last season’s Round 6 win at SUGO. And for Sasahara and Alesi it was their 3rd win overall. It also increased the pair’s Drivers Points to a total of 20 to bring them up into 2nd position in the Drivers Standing.

Finishing the race in 2nd place was the No. 8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT #8 (Tomoki Nojiri/Nobuharu Matsushita).

Unlike these two leading cars, the battle for the 3rd spot on the podium continued amidst excitement until the end of the race. This was due in part to the fact that the No. 100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) that had started the race in 11th position had moved up to 6th position by the time all of the GT500 cars had completed their pit stops and then went on to close in on the tail of car No. 12 running in third position with five laps remaining in the race. Then, in the last two laps of the race it passed No. 12 to move into 3rd position and cross the goal line that way. However, No. 100 was later given a 10-sec. penalty based on the accusation of dangerous action when passing another car, which dropped it back to 6th position in the race. With this, 3rd place went to the No. 12 TRS IMPUL with SDG Z (Kazuki Hiramine/Bertrand Baguette).

In this first race in 12 years at Sepang, the GT500 class podium went to a TOYOTA GR Supra GT500, a Honda CIVIC TYPE R-GT, and a Nissan Z NISMO GT500, giving each make a spot on the podium.

Also, concerning last season’s GT500 class champions, the No. 1 au TOM’S GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi/Kenta Yamashita) which had started the race from 8th position on the grid only to collide with the No. 39 DENSO KOBELCO SARD GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Sacha Fenestraz) on the 1st lap, causing it to spin out and drop back to the last position in the GT500 class. However, as with the winning car No. 37, by adopting a strategy of holding off on its pit work, No. 1 was able to finish the race in 7th position. Despite carrying 70 kg of Success Weight, it didn’t resort to running defensively but continued to chase the cars in front of it, and thanks to the efforts of the drivers Tsuboi and Yamashita the team succeeded in holding on to their top position in the series standing.