8 Hours of Suzuka (Q2): Rea just ahead of van der Mark, a topsy-turvy situation at Yamaha

The second qualifying session for the Suzuka 8 Hours took place late on Friday afternoon in summery conditions and bright sunshine. Following the first session, AutoRace Ube Racing Team, Honda HRC and F.C.C. TSR Honda France had set the fastest times in their respective groups, with Jonathan Rea setting the overall fastest time of 2:04.583 minutes. The aim of the second qualifying session was to determine the provisional starting grid for the endurance classic.

The blue group was up first once again. This time, Honda’s record winner Takumi Takahashi took the lead with a time of 2:05.088 minutes, relegating Naomichi Uramoto in the AutoRace Ube Racing Team’s BMW to second place by a margin of just 0.031 seconds. Both were, however, slower than in the first session.

BMW works rider Markus Reiterberger, in fourth place, confirmed his team’s strong form and finished just ahead of YART rider Karel Hanika. Surprisingly, however, the Yamaha works team once again struggled. Local hero Katsuyuki Nakasuga was slower in Q2 than in Q1 and could not manage better than 12th place in the combined standings for both sessions.

Katsuyuki Nakasuga auf der Werks-Yamaha

Foto: FIM EWC

There was some good news from Lennox Lehmann. After the German had survived a spectacular crash in the morning’s free practice, he was able to return to the track for qualifying. Riding the Motobox Kremer Yamaha, Lehmann was listed in 38th place.

Jonathan Rea leads on Honda – Schrott at SERT!

The yellow group provided the first major scare. Yoshimura-SERT rider Dan Linfoot crashed right at the start of the session on the ultra-fast 130R. The Suzuki was badly damaged in the crash; amongst other things, the entire front end was torn apart and the front wheel came off the bike.

On the track, Jonathan Rea once again left no doubt as to his class. The six-time Superbike World Champion improved his time to 2:04.422 minutes, setting the fastest lap of the whole of Friday. Florian Marino, on his Marc VDS Yamaha, spent much of the session keeping pace with the number 30 Honda and was initially in second place before being overtaken by Marvin Fritz on the YART R1. However, he was more than seven tenths of a second off Rea’s fabulous lap time.

Jack Miller auf der Werks-Yamaha

Foto: Yamaha

MotoGP rider Jack Miller, the fifth-fastest rider of the session, even had to settle for a position behind two other Yamaha riders. Qualifying proved disappointing for the Yamaha factory team.

Michael van der Mark comes close to Rea’s fastest time

In the final red group, the BMW works team once again took centre stage. Michael van der Mark came astonishingly close to Rea’s fastest time with a lap of 2:04.485 minutes, narrowly missing out on the top spot. Hot on the heels of the Dutchman, Alessandro Delbianco on the Marc-VDS Yamaha set the second-fastest lap of the group.

Michael van der Mark auf der Werks-BMW

Foto: BMW

However, the session was overshadowed by further incidents. Christophe Ponsson, who is standing in at short notice for the injured Hannes Soomer at the AutoRace Ube Racing Team, crashed halfway through the session and wrecked the number 76 BMW M1000RR. Shortly afterwards, qualifying had to be interrupted with a red flag following an accident involving Jan-Ole Jähnig on the ERC Endurance BMW, so that the track could be cleared. After the restart, Yoshimura-SERT rider Cocoro Atsumi also ended up in the gravel trap.

Honda HRC ahead of BMW in qualifying

Once all six qualifying groups had completed their sessions, it was clear that Honda HRC had secured provisional pole position in the combined standings, just ahead of the BMW works team. The works team led by Takumi Takahashi, Jonathan Rea and Somkiat Chantra, underlined its ambitions for a fifth consecutive victory at the Suzuka 8 Hours. BMW was the closest challenger, whilst the strong Yamaha works team finished behind the customer teams Marc VDS and YART.

Team Etoile, with Kosuke Okubo, Takuya Ito and Kaito Toba, qualified as the top Superstock team.

The ten fastest teams in the combined standings have also qualified for Saturday’s Top 10 Trial. However, it is currently uncertain whether the individual time trial can go ahead as planned. The weather forecast predicts rain, so it is unclear whether a time slot with comparable conditions for all participants can be found.

Andrea Locatelli auf der Werks-R1

Foto: FIM EWC

The fastest lap times in qualifying:

1. Jonathan Rea (Honda HRC) – 2:04.422 minutes

2. Michael van der Mark (BMW) – 2:04.485

3. Alessandro Delbianco (Marc-VDS-Yamaha) – 2:04.712

4. Naomichi Uramoto (AutoRace-Ube-BMW) – 2:04.847

5. Andrea Locatelli (Yamaha) – 2:04.971

6. Takumi Takahashi (Honda HRC) – 2:05.055

7. Markus Reiterberger (BMW) – 2:05.142

8. Kohta Nozane (Astemo-Pro-Honda) – 2:05.147

9. Marvin Fritz (YART) – 2:05.150

10. Karel Hanika (YART) – 2:05.189

11. Florian Marini (Marc-VDS-Yamaha) – 2:05.208

12. Gregg Black (SERT) – 2:05.248

13. Corentin Perolari (F.C.C. TSR Honda) – 2:05.310