Lexus wins Suzuka Super GT

Lexus has scored a one – two result at the latest round of Japan’s Super GT series held at Suzuka yesterday.

Driving turbocharged RC-F coupes, Daisuke Ito and James Rossiter finished a minute and 25 seconds ahead of Yuji Tachikawa and Hiroaki Ishiura at the end of the 500 kms race.

The two driving combinations have closed the gap on the points leading Nissan GTR of JP de Oliveira and Hironobu Yasuda, who finished third, in both the driver’s and team’s championships, with three rounds still to go.

Yasuda/ de Oliveira have 102 points, with Tachikawa and Ishiura in their Lexus Team Zent Cerumo car on 88 and the Petronas Tom’s RC-F of Rossiter/Ito two more points behind.

In Germany the Toyota TS 040s finished fifth and sixth in the latest round of the World Endurance Championship held at the Nurburgring on the short 5 kms Grand Prix track, rather than the 21 kms “Green Hell” through the Eiffel Mountains.

The race was won by Palmerston North Toyota Racing Series graduate Brendon Hartley, sharing the driving with Australian Mark Weber and Timo Bernhard in a factory Porsche, who have close to within 17 points of the leading Audi team in the series.

There are four further rounds, where Toyota will field un-changed cars, while they concentrate on the development of a new turbocharged engine hybrid for 2016 to replace the V8 powered car which was used to win the world titles last season and retained for this year.