Sacha Fenestraz drove well in what he described as one of the hardest races in his career, and is still in contention for the Super GT title going into the final round.
After finishing this weekend’s race at Twin Ring Motegi in 13th, the French-Argentinian driver and his Team Au Tom’s team-mate Yuhi Sekiguchi can still fight for the GT500 championship. Six points separates them from the current leaders with up to 26 points possible at the final round at Fuji.
Sacha helped the team to seventh place in qualifying which led him to start the race in front of the majority of the other championship contenders.
This weekend part of the success handicap was taken away from the cars but Sacha’s Toyota still carried 45 kilograms of weight ballast.
Sacha started the race well and was able to hold his position of seventh place at the start of the race before handing over to Sekiguchi on lap 28 of 63. He described the battle he was having with his car on track.
« We were struggling with the car balance. There was a lot of sliding and rear locking which didn’t help with tyre degradation.
« It was about surviving and defending every lap to try to not get overtaken. I thankfully was able to give the car to my team-mate still in a good position. »
Unfortunately for Sacha and his team-mate they eventually finished the race in 13th. Sacha described the race as one of the hardest in his career, but was positive about still being in the battle for the title.
« It was a very tough race, one of the hardest races I’ve had in my career in terms of trying to survive and hold position.
« I am still happy that we are still in the fight for the championship going into the final round of my first GT500 season. We will learn from this weekend and we’ll battle to the end. »
The final round of the 2020 Super GT season will take place at the end of November at Fuji Speedway. Sacha’s Toyota and the rest of the field will have no success handicap as the fight for the GT500 championship concludes.
Before then however, Sacha will travel to Autopolis next week for the fourth Super Formula round of the season.
Qualifying : 7th Sacha Fenestraz & Yuhi Sekiguchi
Race : 13th Sacha Fenestraz & Yuhi Sekiguchi