Merhi picked up a pair of drive-through penalties in his third SUPER GT outing of the 12 months at Fuji sharing the Workforce LeMans Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo2 with common teammate Yoshiaki Katayama.
The primary got here for repeated abuse of monitor limits, even after he was proven the black-and-white warning flag, whereas the second was earned for failing to decelerate to the required 80km/h in time throughout a full-course yellow interval.
Whereas Merhi served these penalties within the race itself, limiting he and Katayama to sixteenth place on the end, they’ve additionally mixed to provide the Spanish driver 5 penalty factors.
#6 Workforce LeMans Audi R8 LMS
Picture by: Masahide Kamio
This robotically triggers the mildest punishment on SUPER GT’s four-stage ‘ethical hazard prevention system’, which is to overlook the second a part of Saturday morning’s official apply session at Suzuka.
- Stream each qualifying session and race of the 2022 SUPER GT season solely on Motorsport.television.
Another penalty level would lead to a four-place grid drop, the identical punishment Mugen Honda driver Toshiki Oyu was compelled to serve within the earlier race, with an eight-place grid drop following at eight factors and a one-race ban at 10 factors.
Drivers robotically get two factors scrubbed from their document following two incident-free race weekends.
Hoppy Supra returns, Drago Corse nonetheless absent
The entry listing for the fifth spherical of the SUPER GT season at Suzuka was revealed on Monday, revealing that solely one of many two absent GT300 groups final trip at Fuji will likely be again in motion.
Tsuchiya Engineering, whose Toyota GR Supra was broken in a testing crash at Suzuka final month, will return to the grid as scheduled with its common drivers Takamitsu Matsui and Seika Nonaka.
#25 HOPPY Schatz GR Supra
Picture by: Masahide Kamio
Nonetheless, Drago Corse will likely be on the sidelines for a second race in a row as query marks develop over whether or not the crew can discover the sources to return to competitors following its cut up from title sponsor Busou.
Elsewhere on the entry listing, Kei Cozzolino will likely be partnered by Naoki Yokomizo within the Pacific CarGuy Racing Ferrari with common co-driver Takeshi Kimura away on European Le Mans Collection responsibility at Barcelona.
Tsubasa Kondo returns at BMW Workforce Studie after sitting out the final race at Fuji as a result of COVID-19, whereas Shade Racing has added a 3rd driver to its line-up within the type of Shinnosuke Yamada, who additionally races for the crew in Tremendous Taikyu.