RALPH FIRMAN NO 1! TEAMCAR - Ralph Firman became the first two-time winner of the Malaysian leg of theJapan Super GT Championship after guiding Team Honda Racing to victory inclinical fashion in the GT500cc race at Sepang F1 Circuit today.

Similar to last year, Firman started from pole position in the Honda NSX carbut with a happier ending. The factory backed outfit went through thedisappointment of partner Daisuke Ito having to surrender their lead withwith two laps to go, eventually finishing second to Richard Lyons-SatoshiMotoyama from the Nissan Xanavi Nismo team.

But the Honda car had no reliability problems and coped well with the humid conditions this time.Firman established a good lead before going into the pits after 21 laps tohand over driving duties to Daisuke.As the chasing pack changed drivers,Daisuke slowly made his way up the grid and regained the lead nine lapslater.

Daisuke eventually took the chequered flag for the team in 1'51:41.405.Finishing second and more than five seconds adrift was the partnership of Micheal Krumm and Lyons on a Nissan Fairlady Z car (1'51:47.068).

The French-Japanese partnership of Benoit Treluyer-Kazuki Hoshino finished third for team Calsonic Impul in 1'52:06.525.  ¶ 10:12 PM