WRT dominates Suzuka 1000km

Suzuka returned to the Intercontinental GT Challenge after six years absent, and the return included the classic 1000km format to make it better. BMW and Porsche were directly in the fight for the win, but the No. 32 WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo of Raffaele Marciello, Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts were in control of the race for most of the six and a half hours of racing that was filled with yellow flags.
 
The rain from the Saturday wasn’t there once the race started, but the cars departed with the Suzuka Circuit full of dark clouds as the No. 32 WRT BMW led the way with the No. 888 GMR Mercedes trailing it. While the No. 7 Absolute Porsche and the No. 6 Origine Porsche were keeping the leaders in the radar, it was clear that the initial lead battle would be between Kelvin van der Linde and Maxime Martin.
 
Two cars that were standing out were the No. 500 5ZIGEN Nissan, which was second in the Silver Cup and seventh overall, and the No. 9 BINGO Corvette, which was leading the Bronze Cup from eighth overall, with both having their star drivers right from the go, and Yu Kanamaru and Ukyo Sasahara were returning the favor. Klaus Bachler eventually made his way past them in the No. 23 Phantom Global Porsche, but the German had to engineer his way past their sturdy defenses.
 
With the first round of pit stops done, more Pro Cup cars were getting at the top part of the field, with the best car from other classes being the No. 91 Herberth Porsche which was leading the Bronze Cup, with the No. 60 LMCorsa Ferrari and the No. 500 5ZIGEN Nissan leading the Pro-Am Cup and Silver Cup behind it. The Silver Cup in special had a dramatic lead change, as the No. 14 Phantom Global Audi was leading but Cheng Congfu survived an oil leak in the left rear corner, which triggered a fire in the first pit stop and took the car out of contention.
 
Mikael Grenier held the No. 888 in second for a further 40 minutes before the pressure took the best of him, with Kevin Estre barging his way into second with the No. 7, which wasn’t seen very well by the stewards, which penalized it in five seconds for what was considered a forceful move.
 
With the pace going down in the second stint, the No. 6 eventually passed the No. 7 for second place, but none of them would close down on the No. 32 until a series of full course yellows, which would get into the some of the pit cycles, benefiting the No. 888 as it jumped to second place, only for the next cycle to throw the Mercedes down the table to promote the No. 32 again.
 
Kelvin van der Linde kept the rivals in check in the final two hours, even with the No. 7 Absolute Porsche getting really close to the No. 32 WRT BMW, as the South African pushed and eased the pace when necessary, being just faster than the competition to keep the gap gains to win the race by 13 seconds.
 
The No. 10 Absolute Porsche fought with the No. 2 JMR Corvette for the overall podium but settled for the Bronze Cup win from fourth place overall as the team’s strategy worked well because of the multiple full course yellow periods. The No. 500 5ZIGEN Nissan dominated the Silver Cup for most of the race and reaped the benefits with the class win, while the No. 28 Craft Bamboo Mercedes had a tight Pro-Am Cup over the No. 69 GetSpeed Mercedes, and in the Am Cup, a problematic run for the No. 51 AMAC Porsche practically handed the class win to the No. 360 RunUp Nissan.
 
Suzuka 1000km - Race results
 
With van der Linde having 85 points, Marciello having 80, Farfus having 72, Weerts having 53 and Picariello having 45 points, it is certain that a BMW driver will lift the title at the Indianapolis 8 Hour on 18 October. Still, the Manufacturers title needs to be decided as BMW has 127 points while Porshe has 109.
 
PHOTO: SRO/Gruppe C