Lexus LC500 takes first six places in Super GT season-opener at Okayama

What an incredible debut for new Lexus LC500 race car! It takes first six places in the season-opening Super GT Series race at Okayama International Circuit. Lexus completely dominated the GT500 class, sweeping not only the podium but also taking all fromP1 to P6.

Pole-sitters in Honda didn’t finish the race

The race winners are Ryo Hirakawa and Nick Cassidy in the #37 KeePer Lexus, ahead of Kazuya Oshima and Andrea Caldareli in the #6 Wako’s Lexus. Defending champions Heikki Kovalainen and Kohei Hirate, who were driving the #1 Denso Kobelco car, completed a podium.

The best non-Lexus crew are Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli, who bring their #23 Nissan GT-R to seventh place. For Honda, the highlight of the weekend was best qualifying lap for #8 NSX-GT of Takashi Kobayashi and Tomoki Nojiri. They started from pole but didn’t finish the race.

GT300 victory for #4 Mercedes

1-2 for Mercedes-AMG in GT300 class

In the GT300 class, drivers in German cars reached podium positions. Nobuteru Taniguchi and Tatsuya Kataoka won the race in the #4 Mercedes-AMG GT3, ahead of #65 Mercedes of Naoya Gamou and Haruki Kurosawa, who started from pole. The #9 Gulf Porsche 911 GT3 R of Jono Lester and Kyosuke Mineo made a fantastic progress, starting from P15 and finishing third. They grabbed P3 in the closing laps, after third-placed Takamitsu Matsui made an error and spun in the #25 VivaC Toyota 86 MC.

Check the full results of Super GT race at Okayama

Photos: supergt.net,