After an intense and hard-fought race, the Ferraris competing in the fourth round of the Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia this weekend at Fuji, finished on the podium in the Silver and Am classes.
Tight group. Marco Seefried, at the wheel of the 488 GT3 of HubAuto Corsa, made an excellent start, keeping tabs on the two lead cars, while David Tjiptobiantoro, in the middle of the group, held onto the 13th position won in qualifying. From the back, Yusuke Yamasaki began to climb the standings, already moving up to 18th by lap 5. In the lead, the trio, including Seefried, fought an intense and very tight battle, separated by no more than a second. At the end of lap 15, Seefried took advantage of Bruins' stop to slip into second, while Tjiptobiantoro and Yamasaki pulled in for a pit stop before handing over to Rio Haryanto and Takeshi Kimura. One lap later, Yuya Sakamoto replaced Seefried at the wheel of the 488 GT3 no. 27.
Furious finale. The Japanese driver held onto second with the help of a Pit Penalty for his pursuers but was then passed by no. 12 and no. 88. However, Sakamoto kept fighting to the end, and after regaining third position, tried to move back onto the tail of Tan's Audi, which was attacking race leader, Roleof Bruins. The trio crossed the finish line just 1.3 seconds apart with Sakamoto third overall. In the middle of the group, in the Pro-Am class, after the stop Haryanto steered his car into 10th overall and fourth in the class, which it held down to the chequered flag. It was a very positive result for T2 Motorsports, giving it everything to hope for in Race-2. In the Am class, however, the 488 GT3 of CarGuy Racing closed the race on the front foot and with Takeshi Kimura at the wheel, in the last laps threatened the Lamborghini of Au and Schandorff. In the end, the class winner beat it to the line by just three-tenths of a second. Second place in the Am class and 15th overall was an excellent result for the Japanese team in what, in effect, is its home race.