Suzuka 8 Hours – Yamaha wins, but Honda is the FIM EWC champion

Bruno Gomes

July 31, 2018

Yamaha Factory Racing has done what many thought was impossible! The Iwata based manufacturer has won the famous Suzuka 8 Hours race for the fourth time in a row, ahead of Red Bull Honda with Japan Post team, with Kawasaki Team Green finishing the race in third.

This was the eight victory for Yamaha in the history of the Suzuka 8 Hours race, and the team has done it with only two riders available to ride the YZF-R1. Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark, coming from World Superbike, had to split the effort between the two during the eight hours because the third rider, Katsuyuki Nakasuga, had to sit out of the race due to injuries sustained during the Superpole session.

With typhoon Jongdari threatening the race, and even with the Red Bull Honda with Japan Post making two pit stops less during the 8 hours of the race because of better mileage on the CBR1000RR Fireblade, Yamaha Factory Racing was nothing less than perfect, making great pit stops, the riders avoided mistakes, and in the end that’s all that matters in endurance racing.

This was a though one for Honda, with the special factory team created for this event, composed by Takumi Takahashi, Takaaki Nakagami and PJ Jacobsen crossing the line just 30 seconds after Yamaha Factory Racing, with Kawasaki’s factory Team Green finishing third after they suffered problems with fuel management and a crash by Jonathan Rea when riding behind the safety car.

For Honda though, the Suzuka 8 Hours race was also a good one, since the biggest manufacturer in the world has conquered the manufacturers title in the FIM Endurance World Championship!

FCC TSR Honda France, with riders Josh Hook, Freddy Foray and Alan Techer, reached Suzuka with a 10-point advantage over GMT94 Yamaha, and after crossing the line in front of their main rivals, they’ve became the first Japanese team to conquer the manufacturers title of the FIM EWC.