About Alessio Piana , @alessiopiana130
First day of the official Suzuka 8 Hours event in the rain: Takumi Takahashi flies the Red Bull Honda colors with Japan Post (Team HRC).
Wet start, lucky start. This is the wish of some of the teams expected at the eight hours of Suzuka who took to the track today on the legendary roller coaster circuit for the first two days of “Official Test-1” (already known under the name “Manufacturer / Tire test » ) and encountered rain there.
In full compliance with the weather forecast from the day before, therefore on wet asphalt, more than 40 motorcycles were seen in action in the three scheduled sessions with some of the best teams. According to custom, two examples of the motorcycle which will take part in the 8 Hours on July 29 could be present simultaneously.
HRC EXHIBITION – It is clear that the chronometric references reflect the weather found, but in the rain the HRC team showed that it was back ( here photos of the official livery). Officially returning to the Suzuka 8 Hours 10 years after the last direct participation in 2008, and the Red Bull Honda with Japan Post CBR 1000RRW #33 ridden by Takumi Takahashi (reigning All Japan Superbike Champion and Honda MotoGP tester) excelled at the first morning session by recording the second time of this first day in 2'18 "446. To avoid taking unnecessary risks, Takahashi, who will be joined at 8 o'clock by Takaaki Nakagami and Leon Camier, did not take part in the third session which brought the Fireblade # 090 of the team at & Teluru MotoUP (ex-Kohara) to the lead in the afternoon with a specialist in poor grip conditions such as Kousuke Akiyoshi. The three-time winner of the Suzuka 8 Hours (2007 with Yoshimura Suzuki, 2011 and 2012 with FCC TSR Honda) stopped the clock on 2'18, only 421 thousandths better than Takahashi. A good performance in the event of a wet race where Akiyoshi will be racing with Tetsuta Nagashima and Isaac Vinales, currently engaged in the Moto25 World Championship.
ABSENT YAMAHA Factory, but… – In fact, this first day of testing did not offer any major interesting ideas from a chronometric point of view, postponing everything until tomorrow and, above all, to the three days of testing next week where we will see Yamaha Factory on track, but also all the “big” protagonists expected from the event (like Jonathan Rea). Coming back to recent news, it is with the third time that the YART Yamaha positioned itself in the ranking while it still has to untie the knot linked to the crew who will pilot this R1 #7: Broc Parkes and Marvin Fritz are untouchable, but there is a “toss-up” between Max Neukirchner and Takuya Fujita, with Kohta Nozane, Yamaha Factory rider present during the private tests 10 days ago, ready to take over during work…
ANNOUNCEMENTS AND NEWS – With track activities kept to a bare minimum, today at least offered a series of announcements and a few surprises in the pits. Team Kagayama has announced the return of Kevin Schwantz as Team Manager of the #1000 GSX-R 71 driven by Yukio Kagayama, Naomichi Uramoto and Joe Roberts, the latter of whom was present at testing today, as was another protagonist of the Moto2 World Championship, Dominique Aegerter, moved to the HARC-PRO Honda team for this edition. Speaking of the house with the golden wing, FCC TSR Honda will aim to win the championship title, 10 points ahead of Yamaha's GMT94, but it is not yet known which riders will alternate on the #5 Fireblade. Although starters Freddy Foray, Josh Hook and Alan Techer were officially reconfirmed, Randy De Puniet was back on track today, usually with the Kawasaki SRC in the FIM EWC championship, but already with Masakazu Fujii's team last year at the Suzuka 8 Hours. Any surprises in store?
8 Hours Coca-Cola Suzuka 2018
The ranking of the 1st day of Official Test 1 (Top-15 by team)
01- au & Teluru MotoUP RT – Honda CBR1000RR SP2 – 2'18.421
02- Red Bull Honda with Japan Post – Honda CBR 1000RRW – 2'18.446
03- Yamaha YART – Yamaha YZF R1 – 2'19.049
04- Asia Dream Honda Racing – Honda CBR1000RR SP2 – 2’19.191
05- Kawasaki Green Team – Kawasaki ZX-10RR – 2’19.714
06- Dream Honda RT Sakurai Honda – Honda CBR1000RR SP2 – 2'19.882
07- Yoshimura Suzuki Racing Motul – Suzuki GSX-R 1000 – 2'19.890
08- Musashi RT HARC-PRO Honda – Honda CBR1000RR SP2 – 2'20.725
09- Kagayama team – Suzuki GSX-R 1000 – 2’20.948
10- KYB Moriwaki Motul Racing – Honda CBR1000RR SP2 – 2' 20.964
11- FCC TSR Honda France – Honda CBR 1000RR SP2 – 2'22.412
12 GBS Mochizuka Racing – Yamaha YZF R1 – 2'22.521 ( JSB1000 )
13- Titanium Power Racing with Hooters – Yamaha YZF R1 – 2’23.674
14- EVA RT Trickstar Webike – Kawasaki ZX-10RR – 2'23.800
15- ARMY GIRL Team MF & Kawasaki – Kawasaki ZX-10RR – 2’23.870
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