Real Racing Honda duo Koudai Tsukakoshi and Bertrand Baguette held on to take an unlikely SUPER GT victory in a dramatic Fuji 500km Golden Week race on Tuesday.

Tsukakoshi had been running third when the race turned to its head just after a late full course yellow period, with the two leading cars dropping out of contention in rapid succession due to unrelated reasons.

That put Tsukakoshi in the lead of the race and the 34-year-old was able to withstand intense pressure from Kenta Yamashita's Rookie Racing Toyota to win SUPER GT's sole endurance event of 2021.

The Real Racing squad had qualified down in 11th place in a grid of 15 GT500 cars, but became the favourite for victory mid-race after an inspired decision to pit under the full-course yellow granted it the lead.

A spectacular middle stint by Baguette, where he stretched out an 11-second advantage, only improved its prospects, but a slow second pitstop brought the the ARTA Honda and the #36 TOM'S Toyota back into play.

ARTA driver Nirei Fukuzumi emerged in the lead of the race following the final round of pitstops but was unable to defend from the Real Honda on cold tyres, dropping initially to second.

However, once his tyres were up to the temperature, the two drivers engaged in a thrilling duel and traded places for several laps, before Fukuzumi made a decisive move coming into the final corner on lap 87 of 110 to reclaim the lead.

Shortly after TOM'S driver Sho Tsuboi also passed Tsukakoshi for second, a third FCY of the race was deployed to recover the #31 apr Toyota Prius that had stopped on track with apparent technical issues.

When the race resumed, Tsuboi couldn't return to full power again and was forced to park the Supra near the Coca Cola corner, seemingly granting Fukuzumi an easy run to the chequered flag.

But shortly afterwards the ARTA Honda driver was handed a drive through penalty for overtaking a car under the FCY, putting Tsukakoshi back in the lead of the race.

As the first of the GT500 runners to complete its second stop on lap 68, Real Racing was marginal on both fuel and tyres in the final stint, allowing Yamashita to close right on the tail of Tsukakoshi.

A wide moment at Turn 1 following a tyre lock-up gave Yamashita a glimmer of hope, but Tsukakoshi never let the gap to close down enough to allow the 2019 champion to make a move.

On the final lap Yamashita fell into the clutches of a charging Ryo Hirakawa, allowing Tsukakoshi to escape and score Real Racing's first victory since last year's Motegi event.

Yamashita held on to second in the Rookie Supra he shares with Kazuya Oshima, while Hirakawa completed the podium spots in the #37 TOM'S Supra he was driving with Sena Sekgacuhi.

Naoki Yamamoto and the returning Tadasuke Makino recovered from the rear of the pack to finish fourth in the Kunimitsu Honda, losing a place to Hirakawa right at the death end of the race.

The B-Max/NDDP team finished as the top Nissan squad in fifth, but with Kohei Hirate and Katsumasa Chiyo finishing over 30 seconds behind the leading quartet.

The SARD Toyota of Heikki Kovalainen and Yuichi Nakayama couldn’t match the pace of the other Bridgestone-shod Supras but benefitted from the late drama to finish sixth, ahead of the Yokohama-shod Bandoh Toyota of Yuji Kunimoto and Ritomo Miayata that dropped from first to sixth in the opening two laps and could never quite recover from its slow start.

After serving the late penalty, Fukuzumi brought home the ARTA Honda NSX he shares with Tomoki Nojiri in eighth, as the Impul Nissan (Kazuki Hiramine and Nobuharu Matsushita) and Nakajima Honda (Takuza Izawa and Hiroki Otsu) teams completed the points scorers.

While the full-course yellow made its debut in SUPER GT at Fuji, the race also witnessed a full-blown safety car when the NISMO-entered Nissan GT-R suffered a spectacular engine blow-up at the start of lap 3, leaving a cloud of smoke behind.

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SARD Toyota driver Heikki Kovalainen believes a lack of rear downforce during last weekend's Okayama SUPER GT season stopped the team from challenging the lead GR Supras.

Ex-Formula 1 driver Kovalainen and his teammate Yuichi Nakayama completed an all-Toyota top four in Sunday's curtain-raiser behind the winning Rookie Racing GR Supra and the two TOM'S entries.
However, the Denso-liveried #39 machine was off the pace of the leading three Toyotas, with Nakayama unable to maintain the third spot he inherited when the #37 TOM'S car dropped from first to fourth with a slow pitstop in a crowded pitlane.
Nakayama finally came home fourth, 30 seconds behind the winning Rookie Racing car of Kenta Yamashita, holding off Koudai Tsukakoshi's Real Racing Honda by just four tenths of a second.
Kovalainen, who was at the wheel of the SARD machine for the start, said that he and Nakayama struggled with rear grip and therefore tyre degradation more than expected.
"We were a bit slow straight away from practice and qualifying was hard for us, we only just scraped through to Q2 and in Q2 the gap to the other cars was too big," Kovalainen told Motorsport.com. "We were just missing performance. We have to figure that out.
"It’s probably a combination of some details, nothing major. There’s nothing wrong with the basic concept of the car. But we saw on the data this weekend we are missing rear downforce compared to normal.
"There was something strange going on there. We struggled a bit with the rear grip and we had a more rear degradation than the other cars. I managed to stay with the #36 [TOM'S car] for most of my stint, but the two guys in front were too fast.
"Nakayama-san had more degradation with the rear going away more than expected, so there was no chance [to challenge the top three]. At least we know we have a strong package, we just need to take full advantage."
Kovalainen - who hailed the off-season as the best he's had since his 2016 title - nonetheless scored his best result in a season-opening race since the 2017 season.
The Finnish driver said that Toyota's performance around a track where the GR Supra wasn't necessarily expected to dominate bodes well for the rest of the campaign.

"They’ve done a great job at TRD, and in terms of our team we've had a very good winter; we understood more than we’ve done in the past," said Kovalainen.
"This weekend we didn’t quite get it right, but I enjoyed the race anyway, trying to hang on to the cars in front. But of course we want to take the next step next time at Fuji."

Kovalainen is entering his seventh season in SUPER GT with the SARD Toyota team, having  first switched to the Japanese championship two years after the end of his full-time grand prix career in 2015. Since clinching the GT500 title with Kohei Hirate in 2016, the Finnish driver has won a race every season but has not been able to string together another championship challenge, with a fifth-place in the 2019 standings' his best result during that period. But Kovalainen ended last season on a high note, winning the third Fuji race in the new Toyota GR Supra, and claimed SARD was "working more like a professional team" under the guidance of new team director Juichi Wakisaka, formerly of the LeMans squad. Kovalainen and his teammate Yuichi Nakayama topped the timesheets on the second day in the first pre-season test at Okayama last month, before finishing fifth overall in the following Fuji test. Asked if it marked his best pre-season since he won the championship five years ago, Kovalainen told Motorsport.com: “Yeah. I think we made more progress with the car this winter than in other winters in the past. “The other Toyotas look strong, TOM’S is always there, I’m sure it will be a close fight. But as long as we are in the group, we have a fighting chance, which is a good position."

 He added: “We’ve done a lot of tyre work and set-up work, and there’s been some good and bad stuff. Hopefully we can put it together for the first round.

“The feeling is not so bad, the car is working pretty well. We don’t have any massive issues, it all seems ok. Some days better, some days worse. 

“If anything I’d say it feels like a better winter than some other years for our team. Perhaps we are in a better position now compared to other years.”

Much of SARD team’s struggles in recent years were pinned on the team’s inability to extract the maximum out of the Lexus LC500 package, which ran between 2017-19 and delivered success for the marque’s other teams.

However, a switch to the GR Supra model last year has offered the SARD a chance to catch up with the other Bridgestone-shod Toyota teams.

Kovalainen says he believes he and SARD have a shot at adding to their 2016 title triumph with the Supra this year, but admits that this would largely depend on how the team performs in the latter half of the season due to the series’ success handicap rules. 

“I think we have a chance,” Kovalainen said when asked if he’s confident of securing a second title in the GT500 ranks. "Our team seems solid now, we have a good organisation, good management, a good engineering team. We’ve tried to eliminate our weaknesses.

"I’ve really enjoyed this winter and working with the team. We want to start the season well, but the key part of the season is usually later on. It will always come down to the last one or two rounds, and I’m sure it will be the same again. But so far, so good."

motorsport.com