Suzuka 8 Hours: Honda wins as Johann Zarco leads victory charge
It’s a four in a row for Honda as Johann Zarco and Takumi Takahashi win as a duo at the Suzuka 8 Hours.
Honda claimed a record-extending 31st victory in the Suzuka 8 Hours following a dominant performance from Johann Zarco and Takumi Takahashi on Sunday.
Zarco and Takahashi were largely unchallenged for victory aboard the factory No. 30 Honda CBR1000 RR-R, eventually taking the chequered flag with a margin of 34 seconds in the 46th running of the Japanese endurance classic.
It was the second win in succession for Zarco and Takahashi, who teamed up with Teppei Nagoe to win last year, as well as the fourth in a row for the Sakura-based manufacturer.
Takahashi briefly lost the lead at the start of the race when Yuki Kunii made a brilliant getaway from fourth aboard the No. 37 Harc Pro Honda. But Takahashi remained within striking distance and put the factory bike back in front when Kunii got held up in traffic at the end of the first hour.
Honda’s supreme fuel efficiency was decisive in the first half of the race, with Takahashi pitting five laps after his Yamaha counterpart Andrea Locatelli at the end of the third hour, allowing teammate Zarco to rejoin the track with a 28s advantage. Zarco then pulled away further, putting 45s between himself and the chasing Yamaha.
There was some concern in the fifth hour when Yamaha’s Jack Miller hounded Zarco and brought the gap down to 21s, but the Frenchman quickly rediscovered his pace and set what was the fastest lap of the race at that point.
Two late safety car periods erased the No. 30 Honda’s advantage, with the final caution even promoting the No. 21 Yamaha of Andrea Locatelli to the lead after Zarco was held up at pit exit by a red light.
However, Locatelli still had to make a final stop and hand the bike over to Miller, which meant that it was about time that Zarco regained the lead.
The LCR MotoGP rider eventually cruised to the finish under the lights at Suzuka, while Miller brought home the No. 21 Yamaha he shared with Locatelli and Katsuyuki Nakayama in second place, securing a podium for the Iwata-based brand on its return to the eight-hour classic.
Suzuki made it three different manufacturers on the podium, with Gregg Black, Dan Linfoot and Cocoro Atsumi finishing third, two laps down on the winning Honda. That was despite Yoshimura rider Linfoot crashing No. 1 GXR-R1000R at the start of the second hour and dropping outside the top 10 after remounting the bike
Kunii, Keito Abe and Teppei Nagoe couldn’t keep up with the leading teams as the race wore on, with the Harc-Pro Honda trio eventually finishing the race in fourth place.
The factory BMW of Michael van der Mark, Markus Reiterberger and Steven Odendaal rounded out the top-five after a mixed day for the No. 37 crew. Van der Mark had climbed up to third place with a charging stint in the third hour, but a broken footrest pitched the Dutch rider into a crash and left him on the ground.
The BMW dropped outside the top 10 in the aftermath of the incident, but van der Mark, Reiterberger and Odendaal staged an incredible recovery to finish fifth.
They were followed by the Ube Racing BMW of Loris Baz, Davey Todd and Naomichi Uramoto in sixth.
Seventh place went to the No. 40 Team AJT Honda of Koki Suzuki, Satoru Iwata, Takuma Kunimine, while Gregory Leblanc, Roman Alvaro Ramos and Mikael de Meglio finished eighth for the No. 11 Kawasaki Webike Trickstar team.
The Kagayama Ducati ran as high as fourth but the team’s race unraveled when Marcel Schrotter went down at the hairpin after colliding with a backmarker. Schrotter, Ryo Mizuno and Leon Haslam eventually wound up 29th aboard the No. 3 Ducati.
Two former race-winning teams retired early on, eliminating two potential contenders from the podium fight.
The first to hit trouble was F.C.C. TSR, with its No. 5 Honda succumbing to engine issues after just 27 laps.
YART’s race came to an end shortly after the midway point after Karel Hanika crashed the No. 7 chicane going into the chicane. The Endurance World Championship-leading squad was already running outside the top 20 after Jason O'Halloran dropped the bike at the same corner at the start of the hour, necessitating two trips to the pits for repairs.
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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.
