After a first hot day where the Yamalube YART-Yamaha EWC Official Team (Yamaha YZF-R1 – Niccolò Canepa/Marvin Fritz/Karel Hanika) took advantage of the end of the day (only the last 20 minutes took place in the dark) to achieve a 2'06.381, 16 thousandths of a second ahead of the Yoshimura SERT Motul (Suzuki GSX-R 1000 – Gregg Black /Dan Linfoot/Cocoro Atsumi), the test for the 45th edition of the Suzuka 8 Hours, 3rd round of the FIM Endurance World Championship EWC which will take place on Sunday July 21, 2024, concluded today with four new sessions divided between groups A and B.
The sun which had heated the air and the asphalt on Wednesday gave way to a milkier sky this Thursday, auguring lower temperatures for drivers and machines.
This time opening the day with group B, the Yamalube YART-Yamaha EWC Official Team #1 took the opportunity to lower the reference to 2'06.137, 244 thousandths ahead of the Ducati Team Kagayama #2 (Ducati Panigale V4 R – Ryo Mizuno/Josh Waters/Hafizh Syahrin) definitely very fast.
Group A was led at the end of the 80 minutes by the Honda Dream RT SAKURAI Honda #71 (Honda CBR 1000RR-R – Kazuki Ito/Daijiro Hiura) who improved his personal best time to 2'07.190.
In the last session, 90 minutes this time, the Ducati Team Kagayama #2 picked up the pace to post a time of 2'05.162, half a second ahead of the world champion Yamaha. Concluding the day, group B remained in 2'07, led this time by the Astemo Honda Dream SI Racing #17 (Honda CBR 1000RR-R – Kohta Nozane/Taiga Hada).
As a reminder, the track record dates back to 2022 where
Tetsuta nagashima had achieved 2'04.934 to offer pole position to Team HRC. There is therefore undoubtedly room for Japanese motorcycles, but Ducati is clearly showing the color by coming very close to the record. The Panigale had already shown enough speed to have seduced the ex-Honda driver Ryo Mizuno. As for reliability, it will be able to rely on the experience already acquired by Borgo Panigale in EWC in 2022 and 2023, all under the supervision of a certain Paolo Ciabatti...
Did you say “interesting”?
Photo credits and rankings: Bridgestone
