Porsche 911 GT3 R finish 11 and 12 in Japan

Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Mathieu Jaminet crossed the finish line at round three of the Intercontinental GT Challenge in Japan directly in front of Romain Dumas, Frederic Makowiecki and Dirk Werner. Due to a late spin, the Manthey car narrowly missed out on a top-10 spot and finished behind the Craft-Bamboo entry.

Taking up the race from 17 on the grid, Porsche works drivers Estre and Vanthoor with Porsche Young Professional Mathieu Jaminet worked their way up the field over the distance. After 275 laps, Vanthoor swept over the finish line just eight seconds ahead of Werner.

The German and his works driver teammates Dumas and Makowiecki left their mark in qualifying with sixth place. The race on the 5.807km Suzuka Circuit in the Mie Prefecture was marked by extreme humidity and high temperatures reaching 35 degrees Celsius. Of the 35 vehicles to contest the race, 23 were driven exclusively by professional drivers.