By Tarek Ramchani
The Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia hosted the third round of the Super GT last weekend. The only venue outside of Japan turned out to be a very difficult meeting for the Audi teams.
Two R8 LMS ultra cars were entered at Sepang, from Hitotsuyama Racing and äpr racing. The qualifying session was very difficult for both teams. The #30 Audi of äpr racing, with drivers Yuki Iwasaki and Igor Sushko, qualified in twenty-second place. The #21 ZENT backed Audi of Hitotsuyama Racing did not post a time after facing clutch problems, the car shared by Akihiro Tsuzuki and Richard Lyons.
On race day the two cars only improved slightly. The Hitotsuyama Racing entry started from the back of the pack and ended in fourteenth place within the GT300 class. Akihiro Tsuzuki and Richard Lyons were a lap down. It was a much harder race for the äpr racing car. Iwasaki and Igor Sushko only managed to finish seventeenth in class, two laps down to the winning car.
It was a case of full Honda domination in the GT300 class. A 1-2 victory with the #55 CR-Z ahead of the #16 CR-Z in second. Third was the GAINER DIXCEL Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3, first of the FIA GT3 spec cars. The race results can be seen here.
Since the start of the season the Audi R8 LMS ultra has really suffered in Super GT. We hope that this will improve at the next round .
Photo credit: Hitotsuyama Racing
