Mugen's Sasahara unhappy after latest Dunlop tyre woes

The #16 Red Bull-sponsored Honda shared by Sasahara and Toshiki Oyu was running in sixth place following the pitstop phase, ahead of the Bridgestone-shod NSX-GT of ARTA's Tomoki Nojiri.

But any hopes of a points finish were lost when the team was forced to make a second unscheduled stop on lap 33 of 52, which was followed by a third trip into the pits just a few laps later.

Mugen's race then came to a premature end when Oyu rear-ended Atsushi Miyake's Max Racing Toyota GR Supra GT300 car approaching the hairpin on lap 38 when a full-course yellow period was called.

From fourth on the grid, Sasahara lost a place to the Real Racing Honda of Nobuharu Matsushita on lap two, but was able to pass Yuji Kunimoto in the Racing Project Bandoh Toyota after an early full-course yellow.

But after losing ground in the pitstop phase, a repeat of the tyre problems that plagued the team last time out at Fuji Speedway already left the Mugen squad well out of the points before Oyu's race-ending crash.

"The first stint was OK, thanks to the safety car and FCY," Sasahara told Motorsport.com. "Already from the beginning the tyre was overheating, I couldn’t follow the top three – I was just trying to hang on to P4.

"But when I was behind the Bandoh car I could see it wasn’t that quick, so I felt we could maintain P4 [after passing], which I didn't expect.

"The tyre was still dropping off a lot, which is why we pitted on the minimum [lap 18]. We lost two places in the stops because the out lap wasn’t so great and we were overcut by some cars.

"But then during the second stint when Toshiki was driving, we had a tyre problem and we had to pit again, so we were out of the competition. Something strange was happening with the tyres."

Sasahara and