Suzuka 8 Hours as it happened | Honda favourites to reclaim prestigious title

5h 20mins completed | 2h 40mins to go

- Tetsuta Nagashima has pitted and swapped the lead Honda over to Iker Lecuona, the Spaniard resumes with an advantage of more than a lap over closest rival

- Leon Haslam comes in a couple of laps later to hand the Kawasaki KRT back to Alex Lowes

- Karel Hanika on the YART Yamaha reclaims second position with Lowes resuming in third, 15secs adrift of the Czech rider

5hrs completed | 3hrs to go

- HRC Honda consolidates its lead with Tetsuta Nagashima lapping second place KRT Kawasaki on track. Both bikes are running similar pit strategies

- A fall for Rea during his stint led to a longer than usual pit-stop to check the Kawasaki, which allowed YART Yamaha into second place for a period before pitting

- Leon Haslam currently second but likely to come out behind YART's Karel Hanika when he stops

- SERT Suzuki running a lonely fourth ahead of the sister S-Pulse Suzuki [pictured above] as the top domestic team. Toho Honda sixth despite almost running out of fuel at the end of Ryuichi Kiyonari's stint

- Factory BMW team is an official retirement from the race, while FCC TSR Honda is back up to 11th after earlier brake issues. SRC Kawasaki still battling back from Randy de Puniet's low-side within the first hour of the race, eight laps down in 19th

- Kawasaki Plaza leads SSTK class in 13th overall

UPDATE: BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team is an official retirement from the Suzuka 8 Hours

KRT isn't the only factory team running into trouble as the works BMW M 1000 RR has ground to a halt while under the steer of Ilya Mikhalchik.

Forcing the Ukrainian to attempt a slow and frustrating walk back to the pits with the bike, the machine is now back to the pits well out of the lead running in what will be a blow to its EWC title aspirations...

Issue for the #37 BMW MOTORRAD WORLD ENDURANCE TEAM #Suzuka8hours#FIMEWCpic.twitter.com/wRsaLkNil7

— FIM EWC (@FIM_EWC) August 7, 2022

4h 45m completed | 3h 15m to go

1. Team HRC Honda

2. YART Yamaha (+1m 50s)

3. KRT Kawasaki (+2m 01s)

4. SERT Suzuki (+1 Lap)

5. S-Pulse Suzuki (+2 Laps)

6. Toho Honda (+2 Laps)

7. Sakurai Honda (+3 Laps)

8. ATJ Honda (+3 Laps)

9. Asia Dream Honda (+3 Laps)

10. Kodama Yamaha (+3 Laps)

4h 30mins completed | 3h 30mins to go

We've had a change for second position with the YART Yamaha now ahead of the KRT Kawasaki due to a longer pit-stop for the latter to fix some damage to the ZX-10RR that crashed during Rea's stint.

The gap is only 10secs but Marvin Fritz is lapping a little quicker than Leon Haslam right now... the gap between 1st and 2nd is now 1m 48secs

...which brings me nicely onto the 2019 Suzuka 8 Hours, the last time this race took place.

We've seen today what can happen 5mins into a race, but in 2019 it was the final 5mins that threw everything into disarray. To summarise:

- KRT seemed on course for victory as the race entered what was effectively its final lap with Jonathan Rea winding it down in slick, night-time conditions

- Up ahead, however, the SERT Suzuki expired in a major fashion, dropping oil on the circuit around the S-Curves. As Rea came round, he struck oil and slid into the gravel trap.

- The crash allowed Yamaha Factory Racing to move into the lead, which it held briefly before the race was red flagged. The result was called with Yamaha declared as winners and KRT out altogether because it was not running at the time of the flag.

- However, Kawasaki protested, reasoning the red flag was thrown for the oil on the circuit and not because Rea slipped on it, thus the flag would be effective from the time the Suzuki expired, not when the crash happened

- Officials agreed and thus took the order of the race at the last completed lap, led by KRT. As such, Kawasaki was crowned winners of the Suzuka 8 Hours for only the second time, the first having come way back in 1993

- A furious Yamaha decried the result, which is widely speculated to be the real reason why it hasn't entered the Suzuka 8 Hours this year

- Meanwhile, that said blown Suzuki happened to be the factory SERT one, which was only five minutes away from reaching the flag for a result that would have won it the 2019 EWC title

- Suzuki's desperate disappointment was SRC Kawasaki's shock celebration as in the final moments of the race, it was elevated to the top of the leaderboard to be crowned champions

Tetsuta Nagashima is back on the HRC Honda and immediately rubs some salt into KRT's frustrated wounds by punching in a new fastest lap of the race - a 2m 06.934secs.

It's going to take something very dramatic for Honda to lose this... but then the Suzuka 8 Hours has a habit of throwing up surprises ^^^

Japanese riders dominate the entry list - obviously - but while most of you won't recognise most of the domestic riders competing here, there are a few notable names among the 135 riders entered into this event...

Yuki Takahashi - Team ATJ with Japan Post Honda (currently 12th)

No relation to Takumi, Yuki is a former front runner in the 250GP Championship. Fifth overall in 2008, which earned him a MotoGP ride replacing Andrea Dovizioso at JiR Scot Honda. Managed just half a season before he was dropped.

Hikari Okubo - EVA 01 Kawasaki (currently 10th - pictured above)

After a few seasons in WorldSSP with PTR Honda and Kawasaki, Hikari Okubo is now a podium winner in the MotoE World Cup. Also, he is riding a Kawasaki. But it's purple. Crazy.

Kousuke Akiyoshi - Murayama Honda Dream (currently 13th)

A 2x Suzuka 8 Hours winner and 2x All-Japan JSB1000 title winner - one of the few to succeed in beating the all-conquering Katsuyki Nakasuga - Kousuke Akiyoshi is an experienced hand with nine MotoGP starts to his name too.

Nobu Aoki - Teramoto@J-Trip Racing Suzuki (currently 14th - pictured)

The ultra experienced Nobu Aoki, 51, can trace his GP racing roots back to 1994! A 250GP race winner and four-time 500GP podium winner, he was third overall in the premier class in 1997 on the Rhoes Elf-Honda.

Luna Hirano - TransMap ACE Cafe Suzuki (currently 24th)

The only female rider on the grid, Luna Hirano's outing is also notable for its title sponsorship from London's famed ACE Cafe!

3hr 25mins completed | 4hr 35mins to go

Alex Lowes has pitted the KRT Kawasaki and in a change to the running order, it is Jonathan Rea jumping on the ZX-10RR for the next stint in an attempt to get some of that gap down to HRC Honda out front.

JR has a job to do... and he's on it, immediately setting KRT's fastest lap of the race.

For the first time in this race, KRT is lapping quicker than HRC... the fight back starts here but 1m 14secs is a big gap to bridge!

DID YOU KNOW... you don't have to ride a Japanese motorcycle if you're a Japanese team with Japanese riders. No, really...

The BMW equipped Tone Syncedge4413 effort is one of the leading JSB1000 teams this season, while there is another German-powered Japanese effort in Sanmei Team Taro Plusone, currently running 16th.

However, we have developed a soft spot for Team de"LIGHT" which has chosen the Ducati Panigale V4 R as its weapon of choice... the only team to do so. 

Alas, its discerning choice did not having WorldSBK-like desired effects after it retired on the 56th lap. Sad face.

3h 15min completed | 4h 45min to go

The leading HRC Honda pits with Lecuona completing his very first Suzuka 8 Hours stint having (fortuitously) added 54secs onto what is now a 1m 16secs advantage over the KRT Kawasaki.

It means that after 84 laps, Honda has come full circle with its race starter Takumi Takahashi back on the Fireblade for his second stint.

You may have read about some heavy rain and flash flooding in Japan right now, a weather event that swept through the paddock on Friday evening as these rather apolcalytpic images show...

Fortunately, the weather is settled for this race with no rain expected... which is good news for the spectators and fans, less so for the riders because it is around 32 degrees out there and VERY humid.

So how does one cool down and stop the muscles from seizing... why, you pop down to your local 7/11 (or Lidl) to get a kids paddling pool and have a splash about between stints... albeit without the rubber duckies that are on their way to Korea, last we heard

How to keep it cool, Suzuka style ^^#Suzuka8hours#FIMEWChttps://t.co/yhDXRX46qG

— FIM EWC (@FIM_EWC) August 7, 2022

We've had a fall for the #3 KRP Sanyoukogyo & RS-Itoh Kawasaki being steered by Katsuya Matsuzaki.

Which is a big shame because it is the line-up that includes Akira Yanagawa

Now 51-years old and still going strong, Yanagawa is of course a former Kawasaki WorldSBK factory rider back at the turn of the Millennium.

He was a successful one at that too with 3 wins and 23 podiums to his name...

Unlike WorldSBK, the EWC and by extension the Suzuka 8 Hours allows for free tyre choice with four brands represented here.

While a couple of chancers have selected Pirelli and Michelin rubber further down the order, Bridgestone is the dominant choice of tyre among the front-runners.

Nevertheless, a couple of the EWC efforts - BMW and SRC Kawasaki - are using Dunlop tyres... and they are both having a hard time out there.

Seemingly struggling in the warmer temperatures, though both bikes started strongly they have slipped back just a few laps into each stint.

SRC's Florian Marino is hoping cooler evening temperatures will help its performance improve, but with BMW in eighth yet already a lap down on the podium battle, it's going to be a long run to the end for the winners last time out over 24 hours at Spa...

Safety Car in and WOW what a huge bonus for HRC Honda and a huge blow to KRT Kawasaki...

With two Safety Cars in play there, they each picked up separate groups containing Lecuona and Lowes.

As a result, that 25secs lead of Honda's before the safety car is now... 1min 14secs! 

Lowes also now has the third place YART Yamaha right behind him

SAFETY CAR - We have a bike on fire at the second Degner

The Motokids Takada Yamaha has gone down and self-immolated, prompting some frantic work by marshals who put it out quickly - rider Hinata Nakajima OK

Crash for bike #51 that caught fire. Rider ok.
- Safety car -#Suzuka8hours#FIMEWCpic.twitter.com/nSTlFvfXzf

— FIM EWC (@FIM_EWC) August 7, 2022

This could prove one of the more crucial phases of this race... 

With Nagashima impressing on his debut and Takahashi a trusted hand with his two wins in this race, could HRC Honda's hopes therefore rest more on its third rider Iker Lecuona and how quickly he can adapt?

The Spaniard - who spent two seasons in MotoGP with KTM before joining Honda in WorldSBK - is coming into this race very fresh and is the weakest link - albeit still certainly fast - of the HRC trio.

A single lap is one thing though, stringing many fast ones in a row is another... and Lecuona doesn't come with the best reputation when it comes to keeping it sunny side up.

Lowes, on the other hand, knows exactly what he is doing having won this race three years in a row with Yamaha... the chase is on!

2h 10mins completed | 5h 50mins to go

Tetsuta Nagashima rolls into pit lane to pass the HRC Honda over to Iker Lecuona, the ex-MotoGP rider making his debut as well this weekend.

Jonathan Rea follows suit on the same to pass over to Alex Lowes at KRT. Can the Briton - a three-time Suzuka 8 Hours winner - start making up ground on his WorldSBK rival?