Team Suzuki Press Office – July 25.
Yoshimura SUZUKI Shell ADVANCE will start from fourth place on the grid at tomorrow’s 38th "Coca-Cola Zero" Suzuka 8 Hours World Endurance Championship second round in Japan following today’s Top-10 time attach at the infamous Japanese circuit.
With two riders fronting the team, Takuya Tsuda put-in a lap of 2’06.516 aboard the team’s GSX-R1000 with Top-10 partner Alex Lowes posting a 2’07.144 lap-time as track temperatures rose to 60 degrees.
Just behind in fifth place was Team KAGAYAMA, with team owner Yukio Kagayama posting a best-lap of 2’07.990 as MotoMap SUPPLY secured 10th position with a lap of 2’11.019, set by Hideyuki Ogata.
World Endurance Championship leaders Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT) will line-up in 18th position and Hamamatsu Team Titan 65th.
Tomorrow’s 38th "Coca-Cola Zero" Suzuka 8 Hours World Endurance Championship event gets underway at 11.30 local time.
#12 YOSHIMURA SUZUKI Shell ADVANCE
Alex Lowes:
“This has been a great experience so far and a really interesting system with the single time attack. Unfortunately I made some mistakes in the early stages, my riding was not perfect, but I really enjoyed it. We have now found a good setting for tomorrow and I am looking forward to race tomorrow.”
Takuya Tsuda:
“We have concentrated on finding a good setting for tomorrow’s race. We could not get the pole position today and I am feeling a little disappointed, but we did our best. The important thing is tomorrow’s race and today I concentrated on this.”
#17 Team KAGAYAMA
Yukio Kagayama:
“In today's session we were able to show our performance of our machine. We had already set a 2’07.5-lap but we are aiming to get better. It was difficult to get a ‘super lap’ as the track surface temperature was higher than I expected. The strong point of our team is that we three riders have scored six wins at the Suzuka 8 Hours and we will do our best tomorrow.”
Ryuichi Kiyonari:
“I tried a different setting this morning following my crash yesterday, but the setting I tried yesterday was better than today’s, so reverted to the original settings. Tomorrow I will attack the race
#32 Moto Map SUPPLY
Nobuatsu Aoki:
The track temperature was about 60 degrees today, both for free practice and Top-10 time attack, so it was very difficult for us to give our best performance. But I think it is very important to do our best and to keep the higher average constantly for tomorrow’s race.
Hideyuki Ogata:
“It was very disappointed I made a big mistake at ‘Gyaku’ Bank corner. In the morning free practice, I could make a 2’10.7 after passing several bikes, so I expected I could get a 2’09 lap-time in easily, so I am very sorry with my time today.”
Suzuka Top 10 Trial results: 1 Yamaha Factory Racing Team (Yamaha) 2’06.000, 2 Team GREEN (Kawasaki) 2’06.287, 3 MuSASHI RT HARC-PRO (Honda) 2’06.335, 4 Yoshimura SUZUKI Shell ADVANCE (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 2’06.516, 5 Team KAGAYAMA (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 2’07.990, 6 FCC TSR Honda (Honda) 2’08.076, 7 TOHO Racing with MORIWAKI (Honda) 2’08.382, 8 EVA RT TEST Trick Star (Kawasaki) 2’08.950, 9 Honda DREAM RT SAKURAI (Honda) 2’09.409, 10 MotoMap SUPPLY (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 2’11.019.
Qualifying Result: 18 SERT (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 2’10.222. 65 Hamamatsu Team Titan (Suzuki GSX-R100) 2’15.538.