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[EWC] 8 Hours of Suzuka J3 Qualifying: Yamaha in provisional pole position!

by | July 26, 2019

With qualifying consisting of 2 sessions of 20 minutes per driver, there is little room for strategy or preparations like during free practice, and most drivers only complete 2 flying laps to get a chrono.

Concerning the blue pilots, Katsuyuki Nakasuga (Yamaha Factory #21) won in the first session by achieving 2'05.922 for the first time this year.

 

It precedes Takumi Takahashi (Red Bull Honda #33) in 2'06.200 and Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team #10) in 2'06.963.

We will also note the fine performance of Sylvain Guintoli (Yoshimura Suzuki #12), 4th in 2'07.226.

 

The pace was a little slower for the yellow drivers but there were nevertheless 3 of them to lap in 2'06: Dominique Aegerter (MuSASHi RT HARC-PRO.Honda #634), Alex Lowes (Yamaha Factory #21) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Kawasaki Racing Team #10).

 

Similar pace for red drivers, but with only Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team #10) et Niccolo Canepa (YART Yamaha #7) in 2'06.

At the break, the hierarchy, calculated with the average of the best times of its three riders, was therefore as follows (click on the image to enlarge): note the very small gap of less than a tenth of a second between the Yamaha and the Kawasaki!

 

After the break, we expected the times to improve further, taking advantage of a slightly lower track temperature...
If this was not the case for the Yamaha Factory #21 which remained on an average of 2'06.619, Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team #10) managed to improve his best time during the second qualifying of the blue drivers, which mathematically reduced the gap with Iwata's R1 (already very weak) to only 14 thousandths of a second!

 

Behind, half a second away, we find the Red Bull Honda #33 of Takumi Takahashi, Ryuichi Kiyonari and Stefan Bradl.

Despite a nice improvement in the second session, the Yoshimura Suzuki Motul Racing #12 (Sylvain Guintoli, Yukio Kagayama and Kasuki Watanabe) stay in 5e position behind the Musashi RT Harc-Pro Honda #634 (Javier Fores, Dominique Aegerter and Ryo Mizuno).

By improving his best lap by more than half a second, Marvin Fritz allows the YART Yamaha #7 (Broc Parkes, Marvin Fritz and Niccolò Canepa) to gain a place and become first FIM EWC team ahead of the FCC TSR Honda France #1 (Josh Hook, Freddy Foray and Mike Di Meglio), now 7e on the provisional grid.

At. Teluru SAG RT, S-Pulse Dream Racing and KYB Moriwaki Racing complete the Top10 which must compete tomorrow Saturday on a flying lap in the Top10 Trial to redefine the places on the starting grid for the 8 Suzuka 2019 Hours.

Among the other European teams in the FIM EWC World Championship, we note the beautiful 13e place of the “rookie” VRD Igol Pierret Expériences (Florian Alt, Florian Marino and Xavier Siméon) just ahead of Team SRC Kawasaki France (Jérémy Guarnoni, Erwan Nigon and David Checa), current leader of the provisional world ranking. The Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (Vincent Philippe, Etienne Masson and Gregg Black), also in the running for the world title, will start in 17e position. Honda Endurance Racing (Randy de Puniet, Yonny Hernández and Sébastien Gimbert) is in 21e place and the Wójcik Racing Team in 24e position. Beyond 25e Instead, we find Team ERC-BMW Motorrad Endurance, delayed by engine outages, Omega Maco Racing, Bolliger Team Switzerland, Eva RT Webike Tati Team Trick Star, GSM Racing and Motobox Kremer Racing.

For all teams qualified beyond the Top10, the next big meeting is set for Sunday at 11:30 a.m. local time for the start of the 42e edition of the Suzuka 8 Hours.