Race report
FIM Endurance Suzuka 8 Hours
Suzuka 8 Hours: Yamaha dominates 2017 edition
Yamaha dominated the 40th running of the Suzuka 8 Hours, scoring its third successive win at the Japanese endurance classic since its return in 2015.
Rachit Thukral
Edited: Dec 20, 2017, 1:16 PM
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The #21 Yamaha and the #634 HARC-Pro Honda fought an emphatic duel in the first 90 minutes of the race after breaking away from the #11 Kawasaki, which had taken an early lead from third on the grid.
The battle for the lead was settled when Alex Lowes - who shares the #21 YZF-R1 with Katsuyuki Nakasuga and Michael van der Mark - made a decisive move at the Esses over HARC-Pro’s Jack Miller in the second hour.
The Honda outfit continued to run around four seconds behind the Yamaha until Takaaki Nakagami fell down in the third hour, damaging the CBR1000RR SP2.
The Japanese rider had to pit immediately for a change of headlamp - the fairing was replaced later on - dropping him, Miller and Takumi Takahashi down to fourth.
With challenge from their nearest rival subsiding early on - in a repeat of the 2015 edition - the way was clear for Yamaha to continue its winning streak In Suzuka 8 Hours.
With this result, Nakasuga became the first rider to score three consecutive Suzuka wins, having been part of Yamaha’s line-up since 2015.
Some way behind Yamaha, the #11 Kawasaki crew of Leon Haslam, Kazuma Watanabe and Azlan Shah finished second, inheriting the runner-up spot from the #5 FCC TSR Honda in the final hour.
The Honda squad had looked comfortable in its position until a fire broke out inside the lower bodywork, forcing Randy de Puniet - who shares the bike with Dominique Aegerter and Stefan Bradl’s replacement Josh Hook - to stop for safety reasons.
By the time he came into the pits, the fire had been put out automatically and he was soon allowed to rejoin the track after precautionary checks. But the time lost in the pits proved costly, dropping the crew down in third place.
The #7 YART Yamaha trio of Broc Parkes, Kohta Nazane and Marvin Fritz finished fifth behind the Miller-Nakagami-Takahashi crew, while Tomoyoshi Koyama, Ryosuke Iwato and Tatsuya Yamaguchi were sixth for Honda Dream Racing,
The #12 Yoshimura Suzuki squad - which fielded Sylvain Guintoli, Josh Brookes and Takuya Tsuda - staged a superb recovery drive to finish seventh, having lost several laps in the first 30 minutes with a technical problem.
Race Results (top 10):
Pos.****No.TeamRidersGap 1 21 Yamaha Factory Racing Team
Alex Lowes
Katsuyuki Nakasuga
Michael van der Mark
2 11
Kawasaki Team Green
Leon Haslam
Kazuma Watanabe
Azlan Shah
2m09.052s 3 5 F.C.C. TSR Honda
Randy de Puniet
Dominique Aegerter
Josh Hook
1 lap 4
634
Musashi RT HARC-Pro Honda
Jack Miller
Takumi Takahashi
Takaaki Nakagami
2 laps 5 7 YART Yamaha
Broc Parkes
Marvin Fritz
Kohta Nozane
4 laps 6 104 Honda Dream Racing
Tomoyoshi Koyama
Ryosuke Iwato
Tatsuya Yamaguchi
4 laps 7 12
Yoshimura Suzuki Motul Racing
Takuya Tsuda
Josh Brookes
Sylvain Guintoli
4 laps 8 22
Honda Team Asia
Dimas Ekky Pratama
Ratthapong Wilairot
Md Zaqhwan Zaidi
5 laps 9 03
MotoMap Supply FutureAccess
Josh Waters
Nobuatsu Aoki
Yoshihiro Konno
5 laps 10 72 Honda Team RT Sakurai
Ryo Mizuno
Jason O'Halloran
Jamie Stauffer
5 laps
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