Suzuka 8 Hours: Honda leads Yamaha at halfway point
It’s advantage Honda halfway through the Suzuka 8 Hours, with Yamaha holding second place on its factory return.
The factory Honda team leads at the halfway point of the Suzuka 8 Hours, with the supreme pace and fuel efficiency of the CBR 1000 RR-R allowing Johann Zarco and Takumi Takahashi to pull away at the front.
Takahashi lost the lead on the opening lap to a fast-charging Yuki Kunii on the No. 73 Harc-Pro Honda, but when Kunii got held up by traffic at the final chicane towards the end of the first hour, Takahashi pounced on the opportunity to reinstate the status quo.
Since then, the factory Honda bike has been unchallenged at the front, with Takahashi and Zarco gradually extending their advantage despite competing as a duo at a hot and sweltering Suzuka Circuit.
The No. 30 Honda enjoyed a buffer of around 15s during the second and third stints, but with Takahashi able to eke out several more laps before entering the pits in the third hour, Zarco returned to the track with half a minute ahead of the competition. The Frenchman proceeded to extend his advantage to almost 45s with a series of rapid laps before peeling into the pits exactly at the halfway point of the race.
Yamaha emerged as Honda’s closest competition in the first half of the race, despite Katsuyuki Nakasuga dropping outside the top five on the No. 21 Yamaha during a tough first stint.
However, Andrea Locatelli was back up to second shortly after the first round of pitstops, with Jack Miller carrying on his good work to consolidate second place for the team.
Third place was held by the No. 73 Harc-Pro Honda of Kunii, Keito Abe and Teppei Nagoe, over a minute down on the marque’s factory bike.
Takuma Kunimine made it three Hondas inside the top five on the No. 40 Team ATJ bike.
The No. 76 Ube Racing Team BMW that started on the front row recovered to sixth place after a topsy-turvy race. Naomichi Uramoto dropped to seventh at the start before recovering some of the lost ground, while his teammate Davey Todd also fell backwards during his stint in the second hour. However, Loris Baz and Uramoto then brought the bike back in podium contention in Hour three and four.
The No. 76 BMW was the best representative for the Munich-based brand after its factory bike hit trouble in the middle of the third hour.
Michael van der Mark had propelled the factory No. 37 BMW to third place from the lower reaches of the top 10, but the footrest on his M1000RR suddenly broke on the run to the final chicane, pitching him into a low-speed crash.
Van der Mark managed to bring the bike into the pits to hand over to Markus Reiterberger, but the works BMW was running 12th at the end of the fourth hour, three laps down on the race-leading Honda.
The YART team was also running strongly when Jason O'Halloran dropped the No. 7 Yamaha at the final chicane while running in traffic.
O'Ohalloran had to make two trips to the garage for repairs, dropping the Endurance World Championship-leading team outside the top 20.
The first team to retire from the race was multiple-time event winner F.C.C TSR, with the Honda squad calling it a day after just 27 laps due to engine trouble.
In this article
Rachit joined the Crash.net team in 2025 with a primary focus on F1 and sportscar racing.
He previously served as a news editor at Motorsport.com, where he played a key role in the day-to-day editorial operations.
