The 20-year-old was close to taking pole in qualifying and left the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 in second place during his stint in the first race at Fuji Speedway. Unfortunately, they just missed out on a podium place before car trouble left them with too much to do in race two. Despite the results, the ADD Motorsports-supported racer was happy with his own performance and felt the pace they showed all weekend proved they were going in the right direction. He said: “It was a good weekend, we were just a bit unlucky. “The team has worked really hard and it showed – we were really fast all weekend. “I was held up in traffic on the last sector during qualifying, otherwise I could have got pole - we were so close. “I was putting on some really fast lap times later – we were one of the fastest cars out there. It’s just a shame things didn’t go our way in the end.”

Despite having never raced at the Fuji track before, Martin looked good in the mixed wet and dry conditions during the practice sessions. The team made some changes to the car and they took the pace into qualifying with Martin bringing the car home in sixth. He was just a fraction away from taking pole, with traffic hampering him on the last sector and a red flag to contend with. He got off to the best possible start in race one, overtaking three who ran wide to take the car into second place. While he couldn’t catch the leader, he finished his stint in the same position. Teammate Sandy Stuvik brought the car home in P4 and P3 in the Silver Cup. They were just nine seconds from first place, despite a seven-second success penalty carried over from the last round. 

“I was putting on some really fast lap times later – we were one of the fastest cars out there. It’s just a shame things didn’t go our way in the end.” 

In the second qualifying session, Stuvik finished 15th. But he kept his position at the beginning of the second race and with Kodric’s pace still to come, the team were hopeful of a good finish. However, problems with the fuel pressure meant Stuvik was forced to take the car in for an extra pit stop. Martin was one of the fastest GT3 cars on the track when he got behind the wheel and the fastest of the six Lamborghinis, but by then they were almost two laps behind. He added: “The results obviously weren’t there this weekend, but it was much better all-round. “There are lots of positives to take. I’ve got another track under my belt and with a bit more luck we could have been on the front row. “We were much faster – it felt like we progressed.  Now we just go again next month and hopefully we can look to improve again and get on the podium.” The drivers now move on to the Shanghai International Circuit on 23-24 September.ends