Super GT (Okayama / Round 2)
Benoît Tréluyer maintained his Super GT Championship lead at Okayama last weekend after overcoming his Motul AUTECH-run Nissan GT-R’s weight handicap to score an excellent fifth place finish.
Following victory in the opening round at Fuji last time out, the Frenchman arrived in Okayama betting on an audacious strategy after being lumbered with an extra 40 kilograms of success ballast.
“We knew it would be impossible to fight for victory so decided to focus our attention on tyres throughout free practice as we searched for the best possible balance on the harder compound,” said Benoît.
Those tactics placed greater emphasis on race pace than qualifying performance so it was no surprise to see the Nissan GT-R end up 12th on the grid.
“Our priority was race set-up which clearly made our task more difficult in qualifying. We missed Q2 by 0.1 seconds which was a bit disappointing as we still thought we might be slightly more competitive!”
But while Tréluyer and team-mate Satoshi Motoyama had to settle for the sixth row, they would at least benefit from selecting their preferred tyre compound for the start which offers a potentially significant advantage.
“I took the start and was careful to preserve the tyres during the opening laps in the hope they would last longer,” Benoît explained.
The strategy worked perfectly and despite managing the wear rate, Benoît still had enough pace to scythe through the field during his stint, climbing from 12th to fifth before handing over to his Japanese team-mate. The pit-stop sequence ensured Motoyama rejoined seventh but he picked up two more places before the finish as those ahead were slowed by a combination of mechanical issues and a drive through penalty.
“We finally finished in fifth place. But honestly, taking into account the ballast we had onboard, as well as the engine’s slight lack of power which is hurting us at the moment, we were expecting much worse. On top of that, we maintained the championship lead with 26 points.”
But if Okayama was tough then next month’s third round at Sepang in Malaysia will be even more testing for Benoît, Motoyama and the Motul AUTECH squad whose Nissan GT-R will instead carry 52 kilos of ballast. That increase is sure to be matched by the entire team’s motivation.
