The winners of the 2013 edition, the Musashi RT Harc-Pro Team (vd Mark – Takahashi – Haslam) have headed the qualification of this year’s Suzuka 8 hours.
The Honda squad leads the Monster Energy Yamaha Team with YSP (Nakasuga – Brookes – Parkes) and Team Green (Watanabe – Yanagawa – Fujiwara) the official Kawasaki squad respectively.
The Top 10 was dominated by the Japanese based teams with the single exception being the Honda Endurance Racing Team (Gimbert – Da Costa – Foray) who took 7th best time with Sébastien Gimbert.
Recognised for his incredible performance last year, when he won on his debut at the Suzuka 8 hours riding for the Honda du Musashi RT Harc-Pro Team, Michael Van der Mark once again stunned his rivals with his best lap time of 2’07.839.
This deposed Katsuyuki Nakasuga riding for the Monster Energy Yamaha Team with YSP who is a specialist when it comes to flying laps at Suzuka, into second place at the end of qualifying.
There was also a good performance for the Kawasaki clan. Team Green achieved the third best time with Kasuki Watanabe at 2’08.370, which was in front of the Yoshimura Suzuki Shell Advance Team (Tsuda – De Puniet – Waters) represented by Takuya Tsuda, Randy de Puniet and Josh Waters who recorded laps of 2’08.752, 2’08.800, and 2m09.076 respectively.
Other Japanese favourites are also placed in the Top 10, these include Team Kagayama and Verity (Kagayama – Aegerter – Haga) on Suzuki (2’08.947) and the FCC TSR Honda Team (Rea – Akiyoshi – Zanetti) (2’09.062).
The best showing from the permanent squads was by the Honda Endurance Racing Team (Gimbert – Da Costa – Foray) that placed 7th thanks to a lap of 2’09.104 by Sébastien Gimbert, who was closely followed by his team mates Julien da Costa and Freddy Foray. The English based official Honda Team will take their place in tomorrow’s (Saturday’s) Top 10 shootout.
Honda Suzuka Racing Team (Hiura – Yasuda – Morii) in eighth, the Legends of Yoshimura Suzuki Shell Advance Team with Nobuatsu Aoki, Kevin Schwantz and Tsujimoto in ninth, followed by the Honda du Toho Racing Team with Moriwaki (Yamaguchi – Kobayashi – Kunikawa).
Superpole will re-order the top ten places on the grid.
In eleventh is the Yamaha France GMT 94 Michelin Team (Checa – Foray – Gines) who just missed out on a place in the Top 10, but the time posted by David Checa (2’09.610) and the strength of his crew bode well for the race.
The situation is more delicate for the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (Delhalle – Nigon – Cudlin), 13th, mainly due to problems with tyre grip and chassis settings.
Honda Team Asia (Hook – Pratama – Baba) qualified 14th quickest with Josh Hook putting in a 2m10.007 to put them just ahead of Honda Dream RT Sakurai (Herfoss – Kameya – Stauffer) with Troy Herfoss putting in a 2m10.306 to position the team 15th. Unfortunately Jamie Stauffer crashed and suffered a possible broken ankle thus Stauffer is in doubt for the race.
With a 2m09.076 Josh Waters was the slowest rider in his strong Yoshimura Suzuki Shell Advance squad alongside Tsuda and De Puniet, but was the quickest Aussie ahead of Josh Brookes’ 2m09.599 on the Monster Energy Yamaha. Incidentally, Brookes had a big crash on the Yamaha but walked away apparently unharmed. Teammate Broc Parkes also had a crash on the YZF-R1.
Three other permanent teams are placed together from 22nd position: Monster Energy Yamaha YART Team (Maxwell – Bridewell – Olson), Bolliger Team Switzerland Kawasaki (Stamm – Saiger – Sutter) and the Team R2CL Suzuki (Lagrive – Giabbani – Jones) 24th fastest.
The start of 37th edition of the Suzuka 8 hour will be on Sunday at 11.30hrs local time (GMT+9h).
Suzuka 8-Hour Combined Qualifying Results:
- Musashi RT HARC-Pro Honda – van der Mark 2m07.839 – Takahashi 2m09.205 – Haslam 2m09.923
- Monster Energy Yamaha with YSP – Nakasuga 2m08.159 – Brookes 2m09.599 – Parkes 2m09.808
- Team Green Kawasaki – Watanabe 2m08.370 – Yanagawa 2m09.233 – Fujiwara 2m10.318
- Yoshimura Suzuki Shell Advance – Tsuda 2m08.752 – De Puniet 2m08.800 – Waters 2m09.076
- Team Kagayama and Verity Suzuki – Kagayama 2m08.947 – Aegerter 2m09.610 – Haga 2m10.893
- FCC TSR Honda – Rea 2m09.062 – Akiyoshi 2m09.230 – Zanetti 2m12.633
- Honda Endurance Racing – Gimbert 2m09.104 – Da Vosta 2m10.662 – Foray 2m10.694
- Honda Suzuka Racing Team – Hiura 2m09.104 – Yasuda 2m10.860 – Morii 2m12.881
- Legend of Yoshimura Suzuki Shell Advance – Aoki 2m09.338 – Schwantz 2m11.836 – Tsujimoto 2m15.224
- Toho Racing with Moriwaki Honda – Yamguchi 2m09.420 – Kobayashi 2m10.574 – Kunikawa 2m11.506
- Yamaha Racing GMT 94 Michelin – Checa 2m09.610 – Foray 2m10.394 – Gines 2m11.297
- Teluru Kohara RT Honda – Watanabe 2m09.889 – Ito 2m10.185 – Nagashima 2m12.970
- Suzuki Endurance Racing Team – Delhalle 2m09.917 – Nigon 2m10.139 – Cudlin 2m10.506
- Honda Team Asia – Hook 2m10.007 – Pratama 2m10.677 – Baba 2m10.928
- Honda Dream RT Sakurai Honda – Herfoss 2m10.306 – Kameya 2m12.504 – Stauffer 2m16.682
- EVA RT Test Trickstar Kawasaki – Leblanc 2m10.361 – Deguchi 2m10.836 – Izutsu 2m12.647
- Team Tenmei Sakura Kawasaki – Higashimura 2m10.362 – Takahashi 2m12.175 – Inoue 2m13.892
- Confia Flex Motorrad39 BMW – Sakai 2m10.721 – Takeishi 2m13.513 – Oonishi 2m14.770
- Patlabor TeamJP DogFighRacing Yamaha – Fujita 2m10.831 – Oikawa 2m17.611 – Kurger 2m20.679
- Kawasaki K-TEC Team38 Kawasaki – Karita 2m11.152 – Tsukamoto 2m15.164 – Yamashita 2m15.817
- Honda Kumamoto Racing – Tokudome 2m11.950 – Yoshida 2m13.524 – Kojima 2m13.968
- Monster Energy Yamaha YART – Bridewell 2m11.986 – Maxwell 2m11.992 – Olson 2m12.734
- Bolliger Team Switzerland Kawasaki – Stamm 2m12.268 – Saiger 2m12.344 – Sutter 2m15.807
- Team R2CL Suzuki – Lagrive 2m12.653 – Giabbani 2m13.133 – Jones 2m13.798
- Honda Escargo TEC – Kuboyama 2m12.720 – Nakatsuhara 2m14.105
Suzuki Report
Both Yoshimura Suzukis and Team Kagayama will go through to tomorrow’s Suzuka 8-Hour World Endurance Championship round Top-10 Trial following the opening day of qualifying at the Suzuka Circuit in Japan.
The #34 Yoshimura Shell Advance Suzuki, ridden by Takuya Tsuda, Randy De Puniet and Josh Waters, qualified fourth overall after the three riders’ times were combined. The #12 Legend of Yoshimura Shell Advance Suzuki of former World 500cc Champion Kevin Schwantz, Nobuatsu Aoki and Satoshi Tsujimoto took ninth position and Team Kagayama’s GSX-R1000, ridden by Noriyuki Haga, Dominique Aegerter and Yukio Kagayama carded fifth place overall.
With the day starting with temperatures of 30 degrees and a track temperature of around 55 degrees, there were many crashes that caused several red flags, although the #34 Yoshimura Suzuki team opened with third place overall in free practice on a time of 2’09.334, #12 Yoshimura Legend ninth, Team Kagayama 13th and 13-times world Endurance Champion SERT – fielding stand-in rider Damian Cudlin, who is replacing injured Vincent Philippe, alongside Anthony Delhalle and Erwan Nigon – starting with 15th.
Temperatures soared to 37 and 65 degrees respectively in the afternoon’s Time Attack Qualifying as each rider took turns to set a ‘hot-lap’ on Japan’s hottest day of the year so far to get through to Saturday’s Top 10 Trial; and in the first rider session Tsuda posted the second-fastest time overall with a 2’09.752. Dehalle finished ninth with a 2’09.91, Haga was 17th (2’10.893) and Schwantz 19th (2’11.386).
In the second-rider qualification, Waters put the #34 Yoshimura Suzuki into third overall with a lap of 2’09.076, Aegerter scored fifth after a final lap dash of 2’09.610; and SERT’s Nigon was eighth on 2’10.139.
The final third rider qualifying saw Kagayama put in his best lap of 2’08.947 in the closing stages to claim fifth overall as Suzuki MotoGP Test Team rider De Puniet just missed the top spot, but finished second on 2’08.800. Aoki also put in a strong performance to help the Yoshimura Legends through to the Top-10 Trial with a lap of 2’09.338.
Said Aoki: “I was aiming to score a 2’09.400. I was pushing myself and shouting at myself again and again to get under this time and we got through to the Top-10 Trial.”
Schwantz said: “Conditions are very different compared to last year, but we have a perfect team, staff, partners and the finest machines. All these things make me serious to do well – I’ve not come here just to race for my enjoyment and I hope I can show my best performance as the professional rider.”
Kagayama added: “I did not care about the Top-10 Trial so much as our main focus is the race result, but I knew we were on the border or getting through, so I thought I should do something. I came in and changed the tyres and then pushed myself hard and got the 2’08-time on the third lap, so I am happy that I could do my job!”
Honda Racing Enduro World Championship Team Report
The Honda Racing Endurance World Championship team completed official qualifying for the 2014 Suzuka 8 Hours as the highest-placed permanent EWC contender and the seventh fastest team overall. The result sees the squad qualify for tomorrow’s Top 10 Trial, which will determine the final grid positions for Sunday’s race.
Timed qualifying, which was divided into three 30-minute sessions with each rider completing one apiece, took place this afternoon in incredibly hot conditions with temperatures reaching 37°c. Sebastien Gimbert was first up for Honda Racing and put in an impressive lap of 2’09.104 to place third fastest, ending his session as the quickest Honda rider on track. Julien Da Costa and Freddy Foray followed with 2’10.662 and 2’10.694 respectively.
In accordance with Suzuka 8 Hours rules, the final positions are determined by the team’s single fastest time. Gimbert’s lap places Honda Racing seventh overall, meaning the team will take part in tomorrow’s Top 10 Trial – the only permanent EWC squad to do so. The MuSashi RT Harc-Pro team, which includes Pata Honda World Superbike and Supersport riders Leon Haslam and Michael van der Mark, secured provisional pole position.
Neil Tuxworth team manager – “All the free practice and qualifying sessions have gone very well with no problems whatsoever for our riders or our machinery. As always, the most difficult thing here in Japan is to dealing with the intense heat and humidity, but the team and riders have got on with the job and we’ve qualified for the Top 10 Trial for the first time, which is an excellent achievement. Of course, the most important thing for us now is the race on Sunday and we’re hoping for a good result. ”
Sebastien Gimbert – “I am happy after today. It was a really good session for me. This is a difficult circuit with lots of short, fast corners and chicanes but the bike is easy to ride and the tyres are working well. It is very hot but it’s not too different to where I live in the south of France so I don’t mind too much. I just want to put in a good lap time tomorrow for my team-mates, for Honda and for Dunlop and hopefully we can get a good result on Sunday.”
Freddy Foray – “I think the team have done a really good job so far this week. Sebastien was fast today and I want to thank him as that got us into the top ten. Tenth place for me was not so bad. The feeling on the bike was better every time I went out so we are improving and that’s a good thing for the race. I’m sure I can do better but it is my first time here, so it’s not so bad.”
Julien Da Costa – “Suzuka is a very difficult track and I need to do a few laps to get used to it, but I feel like I’m improving every time I go out. The bike is better with every session. To qualify in the top ten is really good and we’re happy with that. We are the only permanent EWC team in the top ten too, so this shows that we are fast in the championship. The heat is very difficult to deal with – after ten minutes everything is so hot and you feel like your head is in a boiler, but we deal with it! ”
