Endurance: Reigning champions Yamaha top opening day at Suzuka

The reigning Yamaha Factory Racing outfit of Kats Nakasuga and Pol Espargaró, joined this year by Alex Lowes, have topped the opening day of action at this year’s Suzuka 8 Hour race by nearly a second from Yoshimura Suzuki.

Last years winners were top of both of the days’ two hour-long sessions, making the most of the hot but not insufferable conditions to finish ahead of Josh Brookes, Nori Haga and Takuya Tsuda by 0.739.

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Team Green were third, showing strong pace with double winner Leon Haslam joined by Akira Yanagawa and Kazuke Watanabe, while MuSASHi HARC-PRO Honda, the squad he won his two titles with, were fourth, with Nicky Hayden joining Michael van der Mark and Takumi Takahashi

FCC TSR Honda were fifth, with former MCE British Superbike racer PJ Jacobsen joined by Moto2 race winner Dominique Aegerter and Kazuma Watanabe, while Team Kagayama rounded out the top six with 2015 podium finishers Yuki Kagayama and Ryuichi Kiyonari joined by Naomichi Uramoto.

Gino Rea and the Toho Honda squad were seventh, ahead of Broc Parkes and Yamaha Austria in eighth, with Josh Waters and Moto Map Suzuki fifteenth and TT racer Gary Johnson in 51^st.

Among the permanent EWC teams, FCC TSR Honda and Yamaha Austria were chased by GMT94 Yamaha in 11^th, Suzuki Endurance Racing in 13^th, and the Lincolnshire-based Honda Racing squad in 20^th.

 

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