YART dominates Friday qualifying at Suzuka 8 Hours

2024 Suzuka 8 Hours

Friday Qualifying

Karel Hanika was the fastest individual rider in Suzuka on Friday with his 2.05.192. He set a new standard, which his YART teammates Marvin Fritz and Niccolo Canepa supported with 2.05.252 and 2.05.741 respectively. With this, the FIM Endurance World Champions set the fastest time.

The fastest of the four Australians on Friday was two-time world endurance champion Josh Hook, who was also the fastest rider in his FCC TSR Honda Team with a time of 2:06.871.

Josh Waters posted a best time of 2:07.479 on Friday, but with his teammates both in the 2:05s and the rankings based on the average of the times of the two fastest riders, the Team Kagayama Ducati squad was second-fastest.

Anthony West set a best time of 2m07.481s at the AutoRace Ube Racing Team Suzuki. His teammates Takuya Tsuda and Barry Baltus set best times of 2m06.865s and 2m06.692s respectively, placing the team seventh on Friday.

Max Stauffer’s 2m08.129 on the Team Kodama Yamaha was only marginally behind teammate Riku Sugawara’s 2m08.084s. The team leader was Yuuta Kodama with a 2m06.890, which helped the team to 12th place going into the race on Sunday.

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

On Saturday, a second free practice will take place from 14:15 local time, followed by the Top 10 Trial from 15:30. This will determine the final starting order for the ten fastest teams.

A maximum temperature of 0 degrees is expected for Saturday and a maximum temperature of 0 degrees on Sunday. There is only a 20 percent chance of rain.

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

Honda has 29 Suzuka 8 Hours victories. The next best is Yamaha with eight victories, while Suzuki has five victories and Kawasaki two.

No European manufacturer has ever won the Suzuka 8 Hours and 2024 will mark Ducati’s first serious attempt to win the iconic event in over a quarter of a century. The Italian manufacturer’s best finish 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 competed at Suzuka with serious factory backing was in 1991, when current Ducati Lenovo MotoGP team manager Davide Tardozzi teamed up with Belgian Stéphane Mertens on an 888 RS that retired after 26 laps.

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

2024 FIM Endurance World Championship Points

1. Yoshimura SERTMotul Suzuki 88
2. YART Yamaha 87
3. Tati Team Beringer Honda 54
4. BMW Motorrad 53
5. Team Bolliger Switzerland Kawasaki 43
6. Kawasaki WeBike Trickstar Kawasaki 39
7. BMRT 3D Maxxess Never Kawasaki 38
8. Motobox Kremer Yamaha 33
9. KM99 Yamaha 29
10. FCC TSR Honda France 26

Calendar FIM Endurance World Championship 2024

1. 24 Hours of Motorcycles (Le Mans, France): April 18-21 (FFM)
2. 8 Hours of Spa Motos (Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium): June 6-8 (FMB)
3. 45th Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Race, Japan: July 18-21 (MJF)
4. Bol d’Or (Circuit Paul Ricard, France): September 12-15 (FFM)