Yamamoto finished fifth in the No. 100 Honda NSX-GT he shared with Makino in the final stages of the 450km race, but mysteriously dropped to 11th on lap 77 and the final lap.
Shortly after the checkered flag was flown, TV footage showed Yamamoto walking away from the damaged Guoguang machine at 130R.
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No footage of the crash itself is shown, but after the race Yamamoto explained that he was in the 130R trying to defend fifth place from Matsuda Tsuo’s NISMO Nissan Z.
He also confirmed that he was not injured in the crash.
“We didn’t change the tires on the second pit stop, so we’re going to make two pit stops,” Yamamoto said. “I was determined to score and not lose any positions.
” But in the end I was too stubborn and when car #23 [Matsuda] walked past me, I hit the marbles and veered off the track and crashed.
“I’m sorry for the team and frustrated that we didn’t score, so we’ll restart the next race [at Sugo] so we can fight for the top job.”
Makino started the race in No. 100 Honda starting from 8th and continued his first race By lap 30, then handed over to Yamamoto in the second half of the race.
A second lap success on lap 44 meant the team was one of those beneficiaries who changed order when the safety car came on lap 49, boosting Yamamoto to fifth . Matsuda got a no-get off penalty for forcing me to win Kazuki Hiramine of pul Nissan All we can do. But obviously we didn’t have enough victories.
“Now that we are heading into the end of the season, a lot of other cars will have the weight of success, so I definitely want to win with Yoshihide Suga.”
Yamamoto Kazuno Makino raced at Suzuka as Honda’s top team in the championship but has now slipped to eighth place, 21.5 points behind Impul Nissan duo Hiramine and Bertrand Baguette.
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