Yesterday took place the only day of testing reserved for manufacturers and the teams that they had designated.
Thus, we were finally able to compare the performances of the very official Yamaha #21 driven by Alex Lowes and Katsuyuki Nakasuga (Pol Espargaro being absent because of the German GP) with those of his competitors. We remember that Iwata's motorcycle had not taken part in the various tests until now, preferring to ride alone on her own.
Unfortunately, the conditions were not excellent yesterday at Suzuka, and the first two sessions took place on a wet track, making any comparison a bit random. In the afternoon, however, the last session took place in the dry, and although the grip conditions were undoubtedly not optimal, at least an initial hierarchy was able to be established.
It therefore emerges a best time of 2'07.947 achieved by Katsuyuki Nakasuga, but only a tenth faster than the 2'08.072 scored by Kazuki Watanabe on the Green Team Kawasaki.
We will notice that the time achieved by the Yamaha is a little slower than that of the Yoshimura Suzuki during the first tests (2'07.479 achieved by Takuya Tsuda), but this is undoubtedly to be attributed to a track washed out by rain, since the Hamamatsu bike was only able to record a 2'08.819 yesterday. In 3rd position despite a gap of almost a second, it indicates that all the other teams still have a good margin of progress which they will not fail to try to reduce today, during the tests which, this time, will bring together 48 participants .
En 4th position, we find the official Honda of the Musashi RT HARC-PRO team which, yesterday, finally reunited its three drivers, Michael van der Mark and Nicky Hayden having returned from Laguna Seca to reinforce Takahashi.
The first European motorcycle is the Yamaha YART, 12th, who already has three days of testing under his belt, while the GMT94 and SERT finished 14th and 15th for their first run on the Japanese circuit this year.
01- Yamaha Factory Racing Team (Yamaha) – Lowes / Nakasuga – 2’07.947
02- Green Team (Kawasaki) – Yanagawa / Watanabe / Haslam – 2’08.072
03- Yoshimura Suzuki Shell Advance (Suzuki) – Tsuda / Brookes / Haga – 2’08.819
04- Musashi RT HARC-PRO (Honda) – Takahashi / van der Mark / Hayden – 2’08.850
05- Team Kagayama (Suzuki) – Kagayama / Kiyonari / Uramoto – 2’09.013
06- FCC TSR Honda (Honda) – Watanabe / Jacobsen – 2’09.090
07- Toho Racing (Honda) – Yamaguchi / Rea – 2’09.188
08- Hitman RC Koshien Yamaha (Yamaha) – Nagatomi – 2'09.799 *
09- au & Teluru Kohara RT (Honda) – Akiyoshi / Cudlin / Okubo – 2’09.847
10- EVA RT test type-01 Trick Star (Kawasaki) – Deguchi / Izutsu / Nigon – 2'10.997
11- SatuHATI Honda Team Asia (Honda) – Ekky Pratama / Zaidi / Wilairot – 2’11.060
12- YART Yamaha official EWC team (Yamaha) – Nozane / Fujita – 2’11.235
13- MotoMap Supply (Suzuki) – Konno / Aoki / Waters – 2’11.351
14- GMT94 Yamaha (Yamaha) – Checa / Canepa / Mahias – 2 '12 .028
15- Suzuki SERT (Suzuki) – Philippe / Delhalle / Masson – 2’13.508
16- RS-ITOH & FA.COMhokensyokunin (Kawasaki) – Okamura / Higashimura – 2’13.528
17- B-Square & Racing Team Nozuka (Kawasaki) – Ohta / Tajiri / Matsuzaki – 2’14.741
18- Sakura Project with ACTAHOIDINGS (Kawasaki) – Takahashi / Inoue – 2'16.788
