Yamaha dominates Suzuka 8 Hour
Second win in a row for the factory team, ahead of its Kawasaki and Suzuki oppositionAustralia's Josh Brookes has finished third in the 2016 Suzuka 8 Hour world endurance race, with victory – for the second year in a row – going to the factory Yamaha team.
Having dominated almost every practice and qualifying session, Pol Espargaro, Katsuyuki Nakasuga and Alex Lowes then combined to dominate the iconic event, finishing nearly a lap ahead of Team Green Kawasaki (Leon Haslam, Akira Yanagawa and Kazuki Watanabe), followed by Yoshimura Suzuki (Brookes, Noriyuki Haga and Takuya Tsuda).
Three other Aussies also finished in the top 10: Broc Parkes (Yamaha) in fourth, Josh Waters (Suzuki) in fifth and Damian Cudlin (Honda) in 10th.
Yamaha has now on the 8 Hour six times, while Espargaro and Nakasuga are celebrating successive victories – Lowes replacing Bradley Smith from last year's winning line-up.
Lowes said: "Obviously I'm really very, very happy; this is the first time I've won this event. The whole week for me has been fantastic, it's a totally different experience to my normal racing championship and the atmosphere we have in the team and the relationship we have has been really enjoyable, both on the track and off the track.
"The feeling you get when you win is fantastic and it's been a couple of years since I've felt that so I'm happy! I want to say a massive thank you to the whole Yamaha Factory Racing Team for inviting me here; all the staff and guys have been fantastic. Pol and Nakasuga-san have been fantastic teammates; they're really fast which has made the job a lot easier for me so a big thank you to them and hopefully I'll be back next year!"
Meanwhile, the Honda factory entry of Yuki Takahashi, Nicky Hayden and Michael van der Mark retired with a mechanical problem – the team's second successive DNF after Casey Stoner crashed in 2015 – while Kagayama Suzuki (Yukio Kagayama, Ryuichi Kiyonari and Naomichi Uramoto) was an early leader before being passed by Yamaha – and then dropped well back when it had dramas on the first pit stop.
Kagayama Suzuki eventually finished in sixth position, while another strong team, FCC TSR Honda (Dominque Aegerter, Patrick Jacobsen and Kazuki Watanabe), crashed in the first hour and completed the event in 18th position.
Other Aussies to finish were Aaron Morris (Suzuki) in 12th, Alex Cudlin (Suzuki) in 19th and Anthony West (Yamaha) in 53rd.
There were 54 classified finishers and 14 DNFs, the latter including Aussie pair Corey Turner and Mark Aitchison (Yamaha).
In the battle for the 2016 world endurance title -- which will conclude at Oschersleben in Germany on August 27 -- Parkes' YART Yamaha team was the best-placed of the regular teams. Only 17 points separate the top seven teams heading into the finale.
2016 SUZUKA 8 HOUR TOP 10
1. #21 Yamaha Factory Racing Nakasuga/Espargaro/Lowes 218 laps
2. #87 Team Green Yanagawa/Haslam/Watanabe +2m 17.883s
3. #12 Yoshimura Suzuki Tsuda/Brookes/Haga +1 lap
4. #7 YART Yamaha EWC Team Parkes/Nozane/Fujita +4 laps
5. #32 Moto Map Suzuki Waters/Aoki/Konno +4 laps
6. #17 Kagayama Suzuki Kagayama/Uramoto/Kiyonari +5 laps
7. #01 Eva RT Kawasaki Deguchi/Izutsu/Nigon +5 laps
8. #22 SatuHati Honda Team Asia Pratama/Wilairot/Zaidi +6 laps
9. #18 Mistresa ATS Honda Nakatsuhara/Kobayashi/Sekiguchi +6 laps
10. #090 Teluru RT Honda Akiyoshi/Cudlin/Ohkubo +6 laps
14. #94 GMT94 Yamaha Checa/Canepa/Mahias +8 laps
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