Felix Rosenqvist and co-driver Kazuya Oshima steered their Team LeMans Lexus LC500 to seventh place in Sunday’s Fuji 800 km in Japan, finishing on the lead lap after four hours and 40 minutes of running in the longest race of the Super GT season.
Rosenqvist/Oshima, who scored their maiden Super GT podium last time out in Thailand, struggled with car imbalance issues at Fuji Speedway and were left only 13th on the grid in qualifying, before battling their way back to seventh in the race to score five championship points.
The Swedish/Japanese duo came home 56 seconds behind the winning crew of fellow Lexus drivers Kazuki Nakajima/Yuhi Sekiguchi. Rosenqvist/Oshima now drop to eighth place in the overall Super GT standings, with three rounds to go in 2018.
“This was an average race for us to be honest, where we struggled with the balance of the car quite substantially from qualifying on,” says Felix Rosenqvist. “We need to look into what happened here this weekend and why we suffered these problems. It was important to make the finish today and gather as much data as possible. We will sit down and have a look at everything, and try to bounce back stronger next time around.”
The Super GT campaign continues on 15-16 September at SUGO. Before then, Rosenqvist will make a guest appearance in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup at Spa-Francorchamps on August 24-26, forming part of the support package for the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix.
RESULTS (top five)
Super GT
Race 5/8 | Fuji 800 km
1: K.Nakajima (JPN)/Y.Sekiguchi (JPN), 177 laps
2: R.Hirakawa (JPN)/N.Cassidy (NZL), +1.564s
3: K.Tsukakoshi (JPN)/T.Kogure (JPN), +21.184s
4: T.Nojiri (JPN)/T.Izawa (JPN), +26.906s
5: N.Yamamoto (JPN)/J.Button (GBR), +32.197s
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7: F.Rosenqvist (SWE)/K.Oshima (JPN), +56.084s
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (top five)
Super GT
After 5/8 races
1: R.Hirakawa (JPN)/N.Cassidy (NZL), 47 p.
2: Y.Sekiguchi (JPN), 40 p.
3: N.Yamamoto (JPN)/J.Button (GBR), 40 p.
4: K.Tsukakoshi (JPN)/T.Kogure (JPN), 38 p.
5: H.Kovalainen (FIN), 35 p.
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8: F.Rosenqvist (SWE)/K.Oshima (JPN), 34 p.