Once again leading the official tests at Suzuka, the Yamaha Factory Racing Team impressed with a lap completed in 2'06.273.
The winner of the last three editions of the Suzuka 8 Hours is ahead of Kawasaki Team Green and Honda HRC in this second day of testing in Japan.
While these test days are intended to refine the final settings, the Yamaha Factory Racing Team, winner of the Suzuka 8 Hours since 2015, is already in attack mode. Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark have just finished their day with a lap of 2'06.273. They have already beaten the race lap record set last year in 2'06.932 by Alex Lowes and are approaching 2'06.000, Pol Espargaró's record time in the Top10 Trial during qualifying for the 8 Suzuka 2015 Hours.
These performances augur well for a high-tension race on July 29 at Suzuka. Kawasaki Team Green did not let themselves be impressed and responded today with a lap of 2'06.838. Kazuma Watanabe, Leon Haslam and Jonathan Rea also say they will be at Suzuka to win.
The Honda HRC signs the third best performance of the day in 2'07.500 just ahead of the Yoshimura Suzuki Motul Racing (2'07.838) and the two other Hondas in sight, Musashi RT Harc-Pro Honda (2'08.280) and au.Teluru MotoUP RT (2'08.483).
https://twitter.com/SOJ8Hours/status/1017060011015409664
YART Yamaha remains at the head of the teams entered for the entire FIM EWC championship. Broc Parkes, Marvin Fritz and Takuya Fujita completed their best lap in 2'09.021 ahead of FCC TSR Honda France in 2'09.488. The GMT94 Yamaha, which has just announced that these 8 Suzuka 2018 Hours will be their last appearance in the FIM EWC, recorded a lap in 2'10.738. The Suzuki Endurance Racing Team continues its adjustment work for the race in 2'12.170.
A final day of testing is scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday, at Suzuka. The 64 teams entered on the 41e edition of the Suzuka 8 Hours will then be on track Thursday July 26 for free practice.
Source and complete classification: FIM EWC.fr
