The third hour begins with the big fall of the Suzuki #1 of SERT; machine seriously affected, a good mechanics session begins...
Meanwhile, the #21 Yamaha of Pol Espargaro is in the lead, 35 seconds ahead of the #634 Honda of Nicky Hayden, a minute ahead of the #12 Suzuki of Noriyuki Haga, and 1'14 ahead of the #87 Kawasaki of Leon Haslam.
And these are the only motorcycles in the same lap!
La YART Yamaha rolls in 7th position while the SRC Kawasaki, at this time driven by Jérémy Guarnoni, appears in 9th position.
The SERT Suzuki leaves 46th after a 10-minute intervention following the fairly significant fall of Vincent Philippe following a risky overtake.
After the first two hours of racing, we will note the presence of 6 motorcycles equipped with Bridgestone in the lead; we know that Japanese tires are almost always one of the keys to victory at home...
Leon Haslam, double winner at Suzuka, imposes a very high pace on his Kawasaki from Team Green and rises notably on the Suzuki Yoshimura before passing it after 2 hours 44 minutes of racing.
Two minutes later, twist at Honda since Nicky Hayden is arrested on the circuit, apparently due to a technical problem and not a fall.
The motorcycle is mounted on the tow truck and Leon Haslam's Kawasaki takes second place, 1'24 behind what seems to be the inaccessible Yamaha #21 of Pol Espargaro.
We suspect electronic problems and, barring an incident, and there are often some in Endurance, the race therefore seems to be over and we must therefore refer to the race within the race which constitutes the confrontation of the permanent motorcycles to find a little suspense .
There too, the Yamaha of YART #7 dominates in 5th position, in front, there Kawasaki SRC #11, 8th one minute behind, Honda HERT #111 about ten seconds later and the Suzuki #2 of the R2CL team one turn further.
Hoping for a few points (the first 20 score them), Suzuki #50 and Yamaha #94 battle for 18th place, 4 laps from the race lead.
The 4th hour sees the occurrence of many falls among what we usually call the second knives. This mix between a few top drivers and those who could almost be called gentlemen drivers is one of the characteristics of the Suzuka 8 Hours.
As the halfway mark approaches, the Yamaha #7 is positioned 4th 1 turn, the Honda #111 in battle with the Kawasaki #11 for 8th place at 3 turns, while the GMT94, moved up to 14th position, is once again forced to return to its box. She will leave 19th.
On your mind, Nakasuga sets the fastest lap of the race in 2'08.411 (new record), at least 2 seconds faster than all the competition.
