Image: Supplied.

The defending champion Yamaha Factory Racing Team topped this week’s official Suzuka 8 Hours test in Japan, maintaining its status as pre-race favourite ahead of the 2018 Endurance World Championship (EWC) finals.

It was a sterling performance of Yamaha Factory Racing Team’s Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark, led by the Japanese rider’s 2m06.273s lap-time. Yamaha has won for the past three years in a row.

Second fastest with a 2m06.838s was Kawasaki Team Green’s Kazuma Watanabe, Leon Haslam and world champion Jonathan Rea, ahead of Red Bull Honda’s benchmark of 2m07.500s. However, Honda’s factory team will have to compete without Leon Camier, who sustained a fracture to his C5 vertebra in testing. As a result, HRC will have to find a new teammate for Takumi Takahashi and Takaaki Nakagami.

Yoshimura Suzuki Motul Racing’s Sylvain Guintoli, Takuya Tsuda and Bradley Ray were fourth overall after posting a 2m07.838s, ahead of Japanese round regulars Honda Suzuka Racing Team and S-Pulse Dream Racing Suzuki.

Quickest of the EWC full-timers was the YART Yamaha squad featuring Broc Parkes, Marvin Fritz and Takuya Fujita, who set a 2m08.005s lap-time. That placed them seventh, ahead of Japanese contender Musashi RT Harc-Pro Honda’s 2m08.070s. The F.C.C. TSR Honda France team including Australia’s Josh Hook improved to a 2m09.186s on the final day, ahead of GMT94 Yamaha and Suzuki Endurance Racing Team.

Bridgestone-equipped teams dominated proceedings at the Suzuka tests, supplying the top nine teams. Team Kagayama Suzuki was the quickest Dunlop-shod team with a 2m08.562s, while KYB Moriwaki Motul Racing posted the fastest lap of the Pirelli-shod teams.

Of the Australians, Troy Herfoss’ Honda Asia Dream Racing team lodged a 2m09.205s lap-time, Damian and Alex Cudlin’s BMW Motorrad39 team posted a 2m09.722s, while the Eva RT Webike Trickstar Kawasaki team of Anthony West went 2m09.978s. The MotoMapSupply Suzuki team featuring reigning Australian Superbike champion Josh Waters was third-fastest of the Superstock entries at 2m10.944s.

Detailed results