After the preliminary tests in mid-May, we have now reached the decisive week of the Suzuka 8 Hours, the third round of the FIM EWC Endurance World Championship.
The legendary Japanese race, whose lap record belongs to..., needs no introduction. Johann zarco In 204290, we will nevertheless recall some facts concerning the 2026 edition.
– Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki are once again battling it out, this time with BMW and Kawasaki but without Ducati, whose endurance project with the team of
Yukio Kagayama was not renewed,
– The mid-May tests saw Honda HRC perpetuate its current domination of the event, achieving 2'04.773 ahead of Yoshimura SERT Motul in 2'04.856 and FCC TSR Honda France in 2'04.969.
- Hurt, Johann zarco is replaced by
Somkiat Chantra,
– The official Honda #30 has won four consecutive races.
– The 2026 Suzuka 8 Hours have been brought forward by about a month compared to usual…
Yesterday, the first day of private but quasi-official testing, divided into 5 sessions, was dominated by the Yamaha Factory Racing team #21 (Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Jack Miller, Andrea Locatelli) in 2'04.920, ahead of the BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team #37 (Markus Reiterberger, Steven Odendaal, Michael Van Der Mark) at +0,528 and the Honda HRC #30 (Takumi Tahashi, Somkiat Chantra, Jonathan Rea) at +0,577.
Today, the program was exactly the same, except that the weather forecast predicted rain, making the first 90-minute session particularly important in dry conditions…
The best time of this session was achieved by the BMW # 37 in 2'04.680 seconds, ahead of the
YART Yamaha Official EWC Team #1 (Karel Hanika, Marvin Fritz, Leandro Mercado) at +0,533, followed by FCC TSR Honda France #5 (Alan Techer, Corentin Perolari, John McPhee) at +0,764.
The twelve best teams, from first to twelfth place (the BMW #76 AutoRace Ube Racing Team), were all supported by Bridgestone, but we'll come back to that later…
After about fifteen minutes, the second practice session was undoubtedly the last opportunity to confirm performance in the dry, but initially planned to last 75 minutes, three red flags ultimately reduced the session to approximately 25 minutes. La Honda #5 achieved the best time there in 2'05.130 ahead of the BMW # 37 at +0,271 and the Honda HRC #30 to +0,468.
Rain began to fall in parts of the Suzuka circuit during the a one-and-a-half-hour break, and theThe third practice session, which began at 13:30 p.m., took place in torrential rain. The fastest time was set by the Honda #30 in 2'18.898, ahead of the Yamaha #21 at +2,641 and the BMW AutoRace Ube Racing Team #76 (Naomichi Uramoto, Sylvain Guintoli, Hannes Soomer) at +2,723. The times show that no one really got into it, except perhaps the factory Honda team…
The fourth practice session, which began at 14:45 PM and was scheduled to last 90 minutes, was interrupted by four red flags, reducing its duration by approximately 30 minutes. On a track that was still waterlogged, the Honda #30 once again set the fastest time of this session, in 2'18.678 ahead of the Yamaha Elf Marc VDS RACING Team/KM99 #99 (Randy De Puniet, Florian Marino, Alessandro Delbianco) at +0,490 and the Yamaha #21 at +1,064.
The fifth and final practice session, still in the rain, saw the BMW # 76 write 2'17.502 in front of the Honda Astemo Pro Honda SI Racing #17 (Kohta Nozane, Taita Hada, Kohta Arakawa) at +1,399 and the Yamaha #21 to +1,404.
Whether in dry or wet conditions, BMW has therefore shown its ambitions, whether with the official #37 or the Japanese #76.
There will be no racing tomorrow, and the official tests will begin on Friday…
Thanks to the Bridgestone team for the information and photos!
