YART dominate Friday Qualifying at Suzuka 8 H

2024 Suzuka 8 Hours

Friday Qualifying

Karel Hanika was the fastest individual rider on Friday at Suzuka with his 2m05.192 setting a benchmark which his YART team-mates Marvin Fritz and Niccolo Canepa backed up with 2m05.252s and 2m05.741s respectively, to put the FIM Endurance World Champions on top.

In the second session of the day, the track surface temperature was over 50°C.

Mandy Kainz – YRT Team Manager

“Every year we improve the bike more, and that gives us more confidence. As I said at the test, we’re so fast that it’s almost scary to me, and we showed that again today. We were on top after Q1, on top in the night session, so what more could we ask for? For the Top 10 Trial tomorrow, we come into it on top, so we want to take pole and start from the front. More than that though, we just want to get as many points as possible. But it’s good to be fastest. Honestly, we came to Japan with five flight cases, we don’t speak Japanese and we can’t train at home in hot and humid conditions like these. But even so, we’re still the world champions and all the other teams are trying to beat us. We want to enjoy the situation and show our fans how fast we are. We give our best in every session, and no matter where we finish, even if it’s 5th or 6th, what’s important is that we gave it our best. We’re going to do the exact same tomorrow.”

Yamalube YART Yamaha – Niccolò Canepa, Marvin Fritz, Karel Hanika and Team Manager Mandy Kainz

The fastest rider for Team HRC with Japan Post was Teppei Nagoe with a 2m05.980 just ahead of Johann Zarco’s 2m06.084s and Takumi Takahashi’s 2m06.381s. Takahashi’s run was spoiled by many red flags in his session.

Johann Zarco

“I am getting more and more accustomed to the Suzuka Circuit and I feel that I am setting consistent times for the race. In qualifying, the number of tires was limited, so I had to share them with my teammates, which limited the timing of my hot laps. It was a shame that just when I went out on new tires, the red flag came out and I couldn’t find the right timing. As for the team, I’m glad that we were able be in the top 10. The team decides who will race in the Top 10 trial, so I am not sure if I will be selected, but I am willing to give it a try. As an athlete, if I can challenge myself, then of course I want to race.”

Current FIM EWC points leaders Yoshimura SERT Motul were fourth quickest with Cocoro Atsumi leading the way for the Suzuki outfit just ahead of Dan Linfoot.

The fastest of the four Aussies on Friday was two-time World Endurance Champion Josh Hook, who, with a 2m06.871s, was also the fastest rider in his F.C.C. TSR Honda Team.

Josh Waters set a best of 2m07.479 on Friday, but with both of his team-mates in the 2m05s, and the ranking based on the average of the fastest two riders’ times, the Team Kagayama Ducati squad were second quickest.

Anthony West set a best of 2m07.481 on the AutoRace Ube Racing Team Suzuki. His team-mates Takuya Tsuda and Barry Baltus recorded bests of 2m06.865s and 2m06.692s respectively, which ranked the team seventh on Friday.

Anthony West pictured here during the wet session on Wedneday

Max Stauffer’s 2m08.129 on the Team Kodama Yamaha was only marginally behind team-mate Riku Sugawara’s 2m08.084s. Leading the charge for the team was Yuuta Kodama with a 2m06.890 which helped the team a 12th place ranking for the race start on Sunday.

For comparison purposes, the qualifying record was set last year by Tetsuta Nagashima on the Team HRC Fireblade at 2m04.942s. The race lap record was set by Jonathan Rea in 2019 at 2m06.805s on his way to victory with Kawasaki Racing Team, alongside Leon Haslam and Toprak Razgatlioglu.

A second Free Practice session takes place from 1415 local time on Saturday followed by the Top 10 Trial from 1530 that will decide the final starting order for the ten fastest teams.

A top of 33-degrees is forecast for Saturday and a high of 35-degrees on Sunday, with only a 20 per cent chance of rain.

The 45th Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Race is round three of FIM Endurance World Championship.

Honda have 29 Suzuka 8 Hours wins. Next best is Yamaha with eight victories while Suzuki have five wins and Kawasaki two.

No European manufacturer has ever won the Suzuka 8 Hours and 2024 marks the first serious attempt by Ducati to win the iconic event for more than quarter of a century. The best finish for the Italian manufacturer at the event came in 2011 when Tatsuya Yamaguchi, Hiromichi Kunikawa and Ken Eguchi finished tenth on a TOHO Racing 1098 R. The last time Ducati contested Suzuka with serious factory backing was in 1991, when current Ducati Lenovo MotoGP Team Manager Davide Tardozzi teamed with Belgian Stéphane Mertens on an 888 RS that expired after 26 laps.

Click here for a list of previous winners and short history of the Suzuka 8 Hours.