The Honda works team with Zarco/Takahashi/Nagoe prevails against Yamaha and Suzuki at the 45th edition of the Suzuka 8 Hours – Fritz P2, Reiterberger P5
MotoGP rider Johann Zarco has finished his first appearance in the Motorcycle Endurance World Championship (FIM EWC) as the winner at the first attempt. At the Suzuka 8 Hours, the third of four races on the 2024 season calendar, Zarco came out on top together with Takumi Takahashi and Teppei Nagoe on the Honda CBR1000RR-R SP of the HRC works team.
While Zarco achieved a maiden victory on his debut both in the World Endurance Championship and on the Suzuka Circuit, the success for Takahashi is a record. The Japanese rider, who has contested just one MotoGP race in his career (Motegi 2015), is now the record winner of the 8h Suzuka with six victories.
Zarco, on the other hand, is the first active MotoGP rider in eight years to win the 8h Suzuka. The last time Pol Espargaro achieved this was in 2016 on a Yamaha, then with Alex Lowes and Katsuyuki Nakasuga. And Zarco has another reason to celebrate in addition to the race win: the Frenchman turned 34 on Tuesday of this week. He now heads into the second part of the 2024 MotoGP season with a real tailwind.
FIM EWC title defenders Niccolo Canepa, Marvin Fritz and Karel Hanika finished in second place in Suzuka on the Yamaha R1 of the Austrian YART racing team. Their gap to the victorious Honda of Zarco/Takahashi/Nagoe was less than eight seconds after the eight hours of racing. With P2 in the race, Canpea/Fritz/Hanika extended their lead in the overall standings of the 2024 World Endurance Championship
Third place in Suzuka went to Moto2 rider Albert Arenas together with Cocoro Atsumi and Dan Linfoot on a Suzuki GSX-R1000 from SERT. Fourth and fifth places went to Mizuno/Waters/Syahrin (Kagayama-Ducati) and Reiterberger/Guintoli/Michaltschik (BMW).
This year’s edition of the Suzuka 8 Hours was the 45th in the history of the race, which began in 1978 with a victory for Yoshimura-Suzuki. In 2020 and 2021, the race was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The 2024 World Endurance Championship season will come to an end on September 14 with the Bol d’Or in Le Castellet (France)