Source: Supplied.

Yamaha Factory Racing has pulled off a superb third-consecutive victory at the 40th Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 Hours, with seven Australians finishing inside the top 10.

Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark were victorious in the race by almost a full lap, leading Kawasaki Team Green and top Australian Josh Hook’s F.C.C. TSR Honda.

It was a memorable occasion for Yamaha, also clinching the 2016/2017 Endurance World Championship (EWC) with GMT94 Yamaha trio David Checa, Niccolò Canepa and Mike Di Meglio finishing 11th.

Yamaha Factory Racing’s performance paid off thanks to riders Nakasuga, Lowes and Van der Mark. The Japanese factory team will go down in history as the second team to have won Suzuka three years in a row after Team Cabin Honda did between 2000-2002.

After a thrilling start with Kawasaki Team Green’s Leon Haslam getting the hole-shot, Yamaha Factory Racing Team and MuSASHi RT HARC-PRO Honda engaged in a battle for the lead until Takaaki Nakagami’s crash caused the factory Honda team of Australian MotoGP star Jack Miller to fall back to fourth place.

Yamaha Factory Racing then went at it alone in the lead all the way to the finish. After a long drawn out battle with F.C.C. TSR Honda lasting for nearly the entire race, Kawasaki Team Green’s Kazuma Watanabe, Haslam and Azlan Shah Bin Kamaruzaman surged into second place at the very end.

It had looked like F.C.C. TSR Honda’s Dominique Aegerter, Randy de Puniet and Australia’s Hook would finish second, but a late problem forced Randy de Puniet to make a lightning-quick pit stop a few minutes before the finish.

In fifth place behind the MuSASHi RT HARC-PRO Honda team consisting of Miller, Takumi Takahashi and Takaaki Nakagami was YART Yamaha Official EWC Team, which ran a flawless race with riders, Australian Broc Parkes, Kohta Nozane and Marvin Fritz.

The Austrian team finished ahead of Japanese heavyweights Honda Dream Racing and Yoshimura Suzuki Motul Racing, with the latter climbed back up to seventh from the depths of the standings after an early crash. Their prodigious climb back up earned riders Josh Brookes, Sylvain Guintoli and Takuya Tsuda the Anthony Delhalle EWC Spirit Trophy.

Honda Team Asia, yet another Aussie in Josh Waters’ MotoMap Supply Suzuki and Honda DREAM RT Sakurai of Jason O’Halloran and Jamie Stauffer rounded off the top 10, just ahead of the world championship-winning GMT94 Yamaha.

Of the remaining Australians in the field, Alex Cudlin and S-Pulse Dream Racing Suzuki came home 23rd, brother Damian Cudlin’s Team SuP Dream Honda was 42nd, Mark Aitchison’s team JP DFR & RS-ITOH Kawasaki was 46th and Anthony West with Akeno Speed Yamaha was 51st overall.