It is already time for the 46 entered in the Motorcycle Endurance World Championship to start the Suzuka 8H weekend. Before competing in the third event on the calendar, which is also the first of the second part of the campaign, after Le Mans and Spa-Francorchamps. This Saturday morning, teams and drivers covered the Japanese track during Free Practice 2.
Free Practice 2:
This Friday, Qualifying and night free practice took place at Suzuka alongside this weekend's 8H race. In the morning of this Saturday, free practice 2 took place in Japan.
Before setting off, the track temperature was 50℃ and the sun was overlooking the Japanese track, although hidden by a few clouds, as it had been since the start of the weekend.
This session was an opportunity for the 10 best teams from the day before to check their settings before the last part of the qualifying phase, which will take place in the afternoon at Suzuka.
Midway through the test, the No. 2 Ducati, which had a successful Friday, completed a lap in 2:05.485 to claim the best time of the session. The fastest machine from the day before finished second, almost a second from the lead. It is the HRC – Japan Post team which completes the top-3 in 2:07.348.
Le Sert finished this outing on the track in seventh place, more than three seconds from the lead. The times are however not particularly representative of the hierarchy in place, since as explained some teams placed more emphasis than others on how to refine their settings.
The No. 0 team entered in the EXP category achieved another great performance with a thirteenth place in the general classification.
The next session of the day will take place at 15:30 p.m. local time and will aim to definitively govern the top-10 on the starting grid for the 8 Suzuka 2024H.
