Firman conquers Japanese GTs

The victory marked his first in GTs on what was his return to the series after a year away. Firman raced for Toyota in 2000, but has joined Honda this season, driving an NSX for Nakajima Planning.

The former McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Young Driver award winner converted his pole position into an immediate lead and built up an impressive 31sec gap over his rivals before handing over to team-mate Tsugio Matsuda. The Japanese maintained the gap to the flag.

Firman now leads both the GT series and the Formula Nippon single-seater championship, which he is also contesting with ex-Grand Prix driver Satoru Nakajima's team.

"It has been excellent and it is particularly nice to lead both championships," he said. "But you get big weight penalities for winning in GTs. We will have 70kg in total at the next round so we will go from being very fast to very slow. The key is to finish every race.

Ulsterman Richard Lyons also impressed in what was his first drive in the Japanese GT Championship. He finished second with driving partner Sebastien Philippe, at the wheel of a Takata Dome NSX.

The next round is at Fuji on May 4

Ralph Firman/Tsugio Matsuda Honda NSX
Sebastien Philippe/Richard Lyons Honda NSX
Jeremie Dufour/Manabu Orido Toyota Supra
Hironori Takeuchi/Yuji Tachikawa Toyota Supra
Dominik Schwager/Daisuke Ito Honda NSX
Shinichi Yamaji/Seiji Ara Toyota Supra