Faster during free practice, faster during qualifying, and now faster during night practice, the Yamaha Factory clearly sets the tone; that of victory.
Of course, you will still have to go through the Top 10 trials to transform this speed into Pole Position, then commit no fault for 8 hours and be spared from bad luck; but that is the lot of any contender for the highest step of the podium.
And if the Honda MuSASHi RT HARC-PRO still promises to be the most serious competitor to the Yamaha R1, its crew is for the moment a little less homogeneous than that wearing the colors of Iwata, and the men from Honda are holding out all to finish the race, after the enormous dishonor suffered last year (Casey Stoner's fall caused by a stuck accelerator, initially unrecognized).
In summary, #21 has a technical, human and psychological advantage over its rival #634. However, nothing is written in advance...
« Top-10 Trial » tomorrow morning between 8:20 a.m. and 9:45 a.m.
Sunday, July 31
1h30 – 2h15 – Warm up
4:30 a.m. – Departure 8 Hours from Suzuka
12:30 – Finish 8 Hours of Suzuka
TV/video coverage:
Live Timing
Unbeatable in exoticism and coverage, Ustream live stream. However, we get tired of it quite quickly…
Eurosport 2 will take the air on Sunday at 4:15 a.m. to cover the entire event, with Gilles Della Posta and Guillaume Dietrich.
L'Team 21 will take the air on Sunday from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., from 11:30 a.m. to 13:00 p.m.
Night free practice ranking:
01- Yamaha Factory Racing Team (Yamaha) – Nakasuga/Espargaro/Lowes – 2’08.186
02- MuSASHi RT HARC-PRO (Honda) – Takahashi/van der Mark/Hayden – 2’09.196
03- Yoshimura Suzuki Shell Advance (Suzuki) – Tsuda/Brookes/Haga – 2’09.284
04- YART Yamaha Official EWC (Yamaha) – Parkes/Nozane/Fujita – 2’09.445
05- au&Teluru Kohara RT (Honda) – Akiyoshi/Cudlin/Okubo – 2’09.651
06- TeamJP DogFightRacing Australia (Yamaha) – Aitchison/Turner/Kimura – 2’10.059
07- Team Green (Kawasaki) – Yanagawa/Watanabe/Haslam – 2’10.097
08- FCC TSR Honda (Honda) – Watanabe/Aegerter/Jacobsen – 2’10.102
09- SatuHATI Honda Team Asia (Honda) – Ekky Pratama/Zaidi – 2’10.126
10- Team Kagayama (Suzuki) – Kagayama/Kiyonari/Uramoto – 2’10.154
11- Suzuki SERT (Suzuki) – Philippe/Delhalle/Masson – 2’10.652
12- GMT94 Yamaha (Yamaha) – Checa/Canepa/Mahias – 2’10.825
13- Team SRC Kawasaki (Kawasaki) – Leblanc/Lagrive/Guarnoni – 2’10.885
14- TTS & Teluru Kohara (Honda) – Nakamura/Atsumi – 2’10.999
15- TOHO Racing (Honda) – Yamaguchi/Rea/Wilairot – 2’11.202
16- Honda Suzuka Racing Team (Honda) – Hiura/Yasuda/Kamei – 2’11.479
17- EVA RT Test-Type TrickStar (Kawasaki) – Deguchi/Izutsu/Nigon – 2’11.486
18- Rosetta Motorrad39 (BMW) – Sakai/Foray/Pesek – 2’11.681
19- MotoMap Supply (Suzuki) – Konno/Waters/Aoki – 2’11.820
20- AKENO Speed WJR (Yamaha) – Inagaki/Okuno/West – 2’12.008
A lap with Lucas Mahias (GMT94) during these night tests…
