As expected, the track has improved somewhat since then. here and the times went down from the first of the two scheduled sessions.
Katsuyuki Nakasuga et Alex Lowes were thus immediately able to lower their times by a few tenths compared to their reference from the day before, relegating the Suzuki teams Kagayama et Yoshimura as well as the Kawasaki of Team Green, the most serious contenders since the start of testing, around a second away. Alex Lowes even allowed himself the luxury of ahead of his leader during this first 90-minute session.
During the second session, the official Yamaha R1 drove the point home again by registering a 2'06.960 less than a second from the pole position record established by Pol Espargaro in 2015 (2'06.000). Something to rejoice the Tech3 driver currently busy at Sachsenring…
From then on, the competition seemed stunned and the gaps were even difficult to accept, especially since we know Nakasuga is very fast, Alex Lowes, his teammate, simply achieved the second time in these tests, in 2' 07.343. Even in the absence of Pol Espargaro, the Yamaha therefore promises to be the big favorite of this 39th edition of the Suzuka 8 Hours, even before the start of qualifying.
However, and especially in Endurance, nothing is obviously written in advance...
We will thus note the return of the Honda MuSASHi RT HARC-PRO of Takumi Takahashi in the Top 3, with the reinforcement of Michael van der Mark and Nicky Hayden, although not benefiting from a mullet.
On the European side, it is the GMT94 who is doing the best, despite the absence of Lucas Mahias stuck in the airports: 18th, more than 3 seconds behind.
Seven tenths behind, in 19th position, we find the Suzuki of
SERT, while the SRC Kawasaki and the HER Honda did not participate in this test.
The 39th edition of the Suzuka 8 Hours will take place from Next July 26 to 31.
01- Yamaha Factory Racing Team (Yamaha) – Nakasuga / Lowes – 2’06.960
02- Team Kagayama (Suzuki) – Kagayama / Kiyonari / Uramoto – 2’08.377
03- Musashi RT HARC-PRO (Honda) – Takahashi / van der Mark / Hayden – 2’08.519
04- Yoshimura Suzuki Shell Advance (Suzuki) – Tsuda / Brookes / Haga – 2’08.554
05- Toho Racing (Honda) – Yamaguchi / Rea – 2’08.710
06- FCC TSR Honda (Honda) – Watanabe / Jacobsen – 2’08.720
07- Green Team (Kawasaki) – Yanagawa / Watanabe / Haslam – 2’08.724
08- Au & Teluru Kohara RT (Honda) – Akiyoshi / Cudlin / Okubo – 2’09.255
09- Rosetta Motorrad39 (BMW) – Sakai / Foray / Pesek – 2’09.791
10- Honda Suzuka Racing Team (Honda) – Hiura / Yasuda / Kamei – 2’09.847
11- Hitman RC Koshien Yamaha (Yamaha) – Nagatomi – 2'10.000 *
12- HKC & IMT Racing (Yamaha) – Hamahara / Kita – 2’10.021
13- EVA RT type
trial-01 Trick Star (Kawasaki) – Deguchi / Izutsu / Nigon – 2’10.037
14- MotoMap Supply (Suzuki) – Konno / Aoki / Waters – 2’10.098
15- TTS & Teluru Kohara RT (Honda) – Nakamura / Atsumi – 2’10.173
16- SatuHATI Honda Team Asia (Honda) – Ekky Pratama / Wilairot / Zaidi – 2’10.310
17- Team Frontier (Honda) – Tokudome / Koyama – 2' 10508
18- GMT94 Yamaha (Yamaha) – Checa / Canepa – 2’10.519
19- Suzuki SERT (Suzuki) – Philippe / Delhalle / Masson – 2’11.221
20- Mistresa with ATS (Honda) – Nakatsuhara / Kobayashi / Sekiguchi – 2' 11736
