The result marked Hitotsuyama Racing and Cornes Racing Ferrari’s fourth victory of the season, but the championship battle remained unresolved until the final laps of a race interrupted by worsening weather and a red flag.
Kawabata led the field when green-flag racing began on lap three following a Safety Car start, with the Ferrari quickly establishing an advantage. The title picture shifted at the 12-minute mark when Kenta Yamashita passed Yuya Motojima’s Max Racing Mercedes-AMG for sixth, moving Tsuzuki and Kawabata two points ahead in the championship.
The race was then stopped after Kelvin Ho crashed the Pop Race Mercedes-AMG GT4 into the tyre barrier at 130R. Ho was not seriously injured, but the incident, combined with poor visibility and standing water, prompted Race Director Peter Daly to red-flag the contest.
Racing resumed behind the Safety Car with 36 minutes remaining. Hitotsuyama Racing served a 15-second penalty and dropped to third, but Tsuzuki recovered the lead with less than 19 minutes remaining after passing Shinji Takei’s Bingo Racing Porsche and Yusaku Maezawa’s Maezawa Racing Ferrari.
Tadao Uematsu applied pressure in the closing stages, but Tsuzuki held on to win by 1.040 seconds. Uematsu and Yamashita finished second for Miracolo Tokyo, while Maezawa and Naoki Yokomizo completed the podium in third.
Fourth place for Shibata and Motojima was not enough for Max Racing to defend the title it had won following its 2025 revival. The two teams finished level on points, with Hitotsuyama taking the championship on countback.
The GT3 Am title was also decided at Suzuka in a winner-take-all contest. Mineki Okura and Hiroshi Hamaguchi finished fifth overall in the Spirit of FFF Racing Lamborghini, 7.974 seconds ahead of their closest Am rival, to secure the class championship.
Yoshitomo Makino and Takeshi Suehiro completed the weekend’s title celebrations with another GT4 victory. The pair won by 9.7 seconds to claim their seventh win in eight races, closing out the most dominant season on the grid.
