YART dominates Sixth Qualifying at Suzuka 8 Hours

2024 Suzuka 8 hours

Sixth qualifying round

Karel Hanika was the fastest individual rider on Friday at Suzuka with a time of 2:05.192, setting a benchmark that his YART team-mates Marvin Fritz and Niccolo Canepa achieved with times of 2:05.252 and 2:05.741 respectively, putting the FIM Endurance World Champion in the lead.

During the second session of the day, the track surface temperature reached over 50°C.

Mandy Kainz – YRT Team Director

“Every year we improve the bike more and more, and that gives us more confidence. As I said in the test, we are so fast that it almost scares me, and we proved that again today. We were leading after Q1, leading in the night session, so what more can we ask for? For the Top 10 Trial tomorrow, we will go in with the lead, so we want to take the first position and start from the front. But more than that, we just want to get as many points as possible. But being the fastest is also good. To be honest, we came to Japan with five flight cases, we don’t speak Japanese and we can’t train at home in this hot and humid condition. But even so, we are still world champions and all the other teams are trying to beat us. We want to enjoy the situation and show the fans how fast we are. We gave our all in every session, and no matter where we finish, even if it’s fifth or sixth, the important thing is that we gave our all. We’ll do exactly the same tomorrow.“

Team HRC’s fastest rider at Japan Post was Teppei Nagoe with a time of 2:05.980, ahead of Johann Zarco with a time of 2:06.084 and Takumi Takahashi with a time of 2:06.381.

Current FIM EWC points leader Yoshimura SERT Motul is fourth with Cocoro Atsumi leading the way for the Suzuki team just ahead of Dan Linfoot.

The fastest of the four Australians on Friday was two-time World Endurance Champion Josh Hook, who clocked 2:06.871, also the fastest rider in his FCC TSR Honda Team.

Josh Waters set a best time of 2:07.479 on Friday, but with both his teammates clocking 2:05 and the rankings based on the average times of the two fastest riders, the Kagayama Ducati team were second fastest.

Anthony West set a best time of 2:07.481 for AutoRace Ube Racing Team Suzuki. His teammates Takuya Tsuda and Barry Baltus set best times of 2:06.865 and 2:06.692 respectively, placing seventh for the team on Friday.

Max Stauffer’s time of 2:08.129 for Team Kodama Yamaha was just behind teammate Riku Sugawara’s time of 2:08.084. Leading the pack was Yuuta Kodama’s time of 2:06.890, which put the team in 12th place at the start of Sunday’s race.

For comparison, the qualifying record was set last year by Tetsuta Nagashima on his Team HRC Fireblade with a time of 2:04.942. The lap record was set in 2019 by Jonathan Rea with a time of 2:06.805 on his way to victory for Kawasaki Racing Team, alongside Leon Haslam and Toprak Razgatlioglu.

The second Free Practice session takes place at 14:15 local time on Saturday, followed by the Top 10 Trial at 15:30 to decide the final starting order for the ten fastest teams.

The top temperature is forecast to be 33 degrees on Saturday and 35 degrees on Sunday, with only a 20 percent chance of rain.

The 45th Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 Hours was the third round of the FIM Endurance World Championship.

Honda has 29 wins at the Suzuka 8 Hours. Yamaha is second with eight wins, while Suzuki has five and Kawasaki has two.

No European manufacturer has ever won the Suzuka 8 Hours and 2024 marks Ducati’s first serious attempt to win the iconic event in more than a quarter of a century. The Italian manufacturer’s best finish at the event was in 2011, when Tatsuya Yamaguchi, Hiromichi Kunikawa and Ken Eguchi finished tenth on a TOHO Racing 1098 R. The last time Ducati entered Suzuka with serious factory support was in 1991, when current Ducati Lenovo MotoGP team manager Davide Tardozzi teamed up with Belgian Stéphane Mertens on an 888 RS that was retired after 26 laps.

Click here for a list of past winners and a brief history of the Suzuka 8 Hours.

2024 FIM Endurance World Championship Points

1. Yoshimura SERT Motul Suzuki 88
2. YART Yamaha 87
3. Team Tati Beringer Honda 54
4. BMW 53 Motorcycle
5. Bolliger Team Switzerland Kawasaki 43
6. Kawasaki WeBike Trickstar Kawasaki 39
7. BMRT 3D Maxxess Nevers Kawasaki 38
8. Kremer Yamaha 33 Gearbox
9. KM99 Yamaha 29
10. FCC TSR Honda France 26

2024 FIM World Endurance Championship Schedule

1. 24 Hours Motos (Le Mans, France): April 18-21 (FFM)
2. 8 Hours Spa Motos (Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium): June 6-8 (FMB)
3. 45th Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Race, Japan: July 18-21 (MJF)
4. Bol d’Or (Paul Ricard Circuit, France): September 12-15 (FFM)