Takumi Takahashi, Tetsuta Nagashima and Iker Lecuona were virtually unapproachable for most of the race aboard the number 33 Fireblade HRC. The combination of Honda’s pace advantage and a safety car allowed the trio to finish with a lap advantage. on Jonathan Rea, Leon Haslam and Alex Lowes aboard the factory Kawasaki.
It was the fourth career victory for Takahashi, following three previous successes with Honda in 2010, ’13 and ’14, and the first for his rookie teammates Nagashima and Lecuona, who both showed great pace for the whole race.
For Honda it is also the end of a fasting period at the Suzuka 8 Hours that dates back to 2014, when Takahashi, Haslam and Michael van der Mark had taken first place for the HARC-Pro team.
At the start of the race, pole-setting Takahashi slipped behind Haslam (now in Kawasaki) and Josh Hook’s Honda-FCC TSR, but had little trouble passing them again given the power of the CBR1000RR, which became immediately evident.
A safety car for a collision between Honda satellite pilots Kosuke Sakumoto and Naomichi Uramoto put Takahashi’s rivals back into play, who dropped back to third position, but one lap was enough for the Japanese driver to pass Haslam and the Suzuki-Yoshimura again by Gregg Black and regain leadership.
From then on Haslam accumulated an eight-second lead over the pack of pursuers, while Nagashima further extended the lead to 22 “during his first stint.
Honda’s attempt to take the first Suzuka win in nearly a decade grew further when Lecuona took over the bike in the third hour, just as Kawasaki handed over the ride to Lowes after Haslam and Rea’s previous stints.
Despite the lack of experience on the Japanese track and in endurance races, Lecuona was fast and set a number of record laps, while Lowes struggled to find the pace on the factory Kawasaki losing 30 “to the leader.
This had a major impact on the final order, as when the safety car returned to the track after the Yamaha IW NAC # 51 caught fire at the second ‘Degner’, Lowes finished behind the second of the two safety cars.
This gave Lecuona a 1’15 “lead over the British rider, ending any chance of a miraculous comeback by Kawasaki.
Rea tried to close the gap from the leading Honda after returning to the saddle in the fourth hour and was able to consistently match – and sometimes even beat – Takahashi’s times. But his hard work was thwarted when he hit an opponent’s handlebars as he made his way through traffic, crashing to the ground at the first chicane.
The six-time World Superbike champion managed to get back on his Kawasaki and start again, but the 30 “lost in this way meant that Honda was even further ahead.
During the fifth hour of the race, Nagashima was able to put a lap between himself and the Kawasaki during his second stint on the factory Honda, and from that point onwards the HRC crew continued smoothly, going on to conquer a stunning victory on his home ground.
Kawasaki, meanwhile, was forced to focus on second place, having slipped behind the YART Yamaha team after wasting additional time in the pits during Rea’s scheduled stop to complete some repairs on the # 10 ZX-10RR.
The # 7 YART crew, consisting of Marvin Fritz, Niccolò Canepa and Harek Haneka, amassed a nearly 10 “lead over the Kawasaki trio, after recovering from a bad start that left the team in 22nd place at the end of the first round.
The battle between the two teams was destined to continue until the end, with the YART probably having to make an extra stop to put in fuel at the end of the race and make it to the finish.
But the first podium for the Austrian team fell through when Fritz and Riku Sugawara’s # 74 Yamaha crashed at the ‘Esses’ early in the final hour, allowing Kawasaki to finish second.
Fritz managed to get the bike back to the YART pit for a quick repair when the safety car re-entered a third time, but a stop-go-penalty further dampened his chances and he ultimately finished in a disappointing seventh place, at five laps from the leader.
The YART troubles have promoted rival EWC team Yoshimura Suzuki to the bottom step of the podium, in what should be the manufacturer’s last outing as an official at Suzuka.
Without Sylvain Guintoli due to an injury to the French rider’s hand and forced to start from 22nd position, the Suzuki team looked fit during the race, with a heroic first stint from Black that briefly took him to the lead after the first stage of safety car.
Black and Kazuki Watanabe ended up dropping a few positions in order, having played the race as a duo in scorching heat, but an excellent finish guaranteed them the third step of the podium.
The # 40 S-Pulse team confirmed the results of the factory Suzuki team with a fourth place finish: Hideyuki Ogata, Atsumi Cocoro and Takuya Tsuda won a duel with the Honda-Toho # 104 of four-time Suzuka winner Ryuichi Kiyonari , Hiromichi Kunikawa and Takuma Kunimine.
Behind the Yamaha YART, the top 10 was completed by the Honda # 40 of the ATJ Team shared by Yuki Takahashi, Kazuki Ito and Tomoyoshi Koyama, the Honda # 5 of FCC TSR (Josh Hook and Mike Di Meglio) and the Yamaha # 50 of the Team Kodama in the hands of Yuuta Kodama, Kengo Nagao and Kenji Nagao.
The FCC TSR team, which competed without Gino Rea after his terrible crash in Saturday’s practice, was vying for a top five finish until a long pit stop for brake problems in the third hour sent him crashing into the ‘order.
BMW’s first participation in Suzuka ended in a retirement after the single M1000RR stopped just before the middle of the race, with two-time IDM champion Ilya Mikhalchik having to push the bike to the pits where it was retired.
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