Japanese
No.1 DENSO KOBELCO SARD LC500
Heikki Kovalainen
At the start, it was neither completely dry not completely wet, which made for very difficult conditions. I chose to start with a harder wet tire, and that turned out to be the best choice. This season our car had been delivering high performance from the beginning, and today the tire choice and the timing of the Safety Car interventions turned out best for us. Actually I was only hoping for a podium finish, so getting the win is a great result.
Kohei Hirate
After the start, we didn’t know what the weather would do. So I didn’t know what tires to choose, and when I think about it, SUGO tends to have more than its share of difficult races like this. Today we chose to start with harder wet tires and that turned out to be a great choice. And because of the timing of the Safety Car breaks, we managed to finish our pit stop at the best possible time. After leaving the pit it was a one-on-one battle with car No. 46. While paying attention to tire management, I was able to keep the lead at the end. I’m glad that I was able to win here at SUGO, because this is a place that I consider my second home.
No.11 GAINER TANAX AMG GT3
Katsuyuki Hiranaka
Bjorn (Wirdheim) ran very well in the first stint and quickly got us into the top ten. And then the team did a great job with the pit work. These were the big reasons for our win today. Also, we were helped by the Safety Car, which was lucky. It has really been some time since we felt we had a chance to win and were able to run with assurance, and for that reason, there was a feeling of some pressure too. So, I am really relieved that we won.”
Bjorn Wirdheim
Today, the start was very difficult, but it turned out to be the best conditions for the Dunlop tires. For the first ten laps after the start the traffic (crowded track) was really tough, so I had to run very carefully at the high pace I was going and I managed to get up to 6th position. After that, the track conditions changed and I lost some ground, but the performance of the Dunlop tires in the early stages of the race and the and the fact that we executed a strategy of doing our pit stop as soon as the Safety Car ended up leading to the best result. I am very happy to get this first win in some time.
| 4/13-14 | Round1 OKAYAMA | |
| 5/03-04 | Round2 FUJI | |
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6/01-02 | Round3 SUZUKA |
| 8/03-04 | Round4 FUJI | |
| 8/31-9/01 | Round5 SUZUKA | |
| 9/21-22 | Round6 SUGO | |
| 10/19-20 | Round7 AUTOPOLIS | |
| 11/02-03 | Round8 MOTEGI |