26
October 2020
Sacha Fenestraz stays in the tight Super GT championship fight after finishing in seventh place at Suzuka International Circuit.
The result means that Sacha and his Team Au Tom’s team-mate Yuhi Sekiguchi are fifth in the GT500 standings and just two points away from the leaders with just two rounds left to go.
For the French-Argentinian driver it was the final race with full success ballast on the car, made up of extra weight and fuel flow restrictions. For the penultimate race in two weeks the handicap will be halved for all cars, with no restrictions in place for the final round of the 2020 season.
Sacha qualified in 12th position with the team’s chances of getting through Q1 limited because of the added handicap. However he started the race well and quickly made up a position, staying with the championship rivals around him for the first 10 laps of the race.
On lap 11 of the 52 lap race Sacha was able to move into the points, and seven laps later overtook another car to move into ninth place.
Sacha handed over the car to his team-mate on lap 19. Through a good pit stop from his team and an incident elsewhere on track on the same lap, the team were running in eighth when the safety car was deployed on lap 23.
Watching on after a successful stint from Sacha, Sekiguchi managed to move into seventh and was untroubled to the chequered flag.
Seventh place gave Sacha and Sekiguchi four points, which could prove to be vital in the championship fight. The race winning Nissan became level on points with Sacha and his team. Importantly however, thanks to Sacha and his team-mates performance, they finished ahead of their rivals with similar amounts of ballast.
Sacha was very positive after the race as he is firmly part of the GT500 championship fight this year.
“We managed to make improvements to the car and I was able to make up some positions during my stint. We had a good pit stop and managed to finish in seventh, which we weren’t expecting earlier this weekend.
“I’m very happy with the result and that we are in the fight for the championship after the last race with the full amount of ballast. It’s going to be a very interesting final two rounds as the championship is very tight.”
The penultimate round of the 2020 Super GT season will take place in two weeks time at Twin Ring Motegi.
