Victory of the Musashi RT Harc-Pro (Honda) at the Suzuka 8H 2013

The Honda of the Musashi RT Harc-Pro team in the hands of Leon Haslam and Michael Van Der Mark won yesterday at the 2013 Suzuka 8H ahead of the Yoshimura Suzuki and Team Kagayama.

The Honda of the Musashi RT Harc-Pro team in the hands of Leon Haslam and Michael Van Der Mark won yesterday at the 2013 Suzuka 8H ahead of the Yoshimura Suzuki and Team Kagayama.

Leon Haslam and Michael Van Der Mark are 1’52 ahead of the Suzuki Yoshimura led by Takuya Tsuda, Nobuatsu Aoki and Josh Brookes and the very noticed Suzuki of Team Kagayama in the hands of Yukio Kagayama, Kevin Schwantz (opposite) and Noriyuki Haga who finishes one lap from the winner.

On the French side, the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT) fought for a long time in the top quartet but finished at the foot of the podium in front of the Yamaha France GMT 94 Michelin Yamalube, fifth with two laps behind the winner, while the BMW Motorrad France Thevent had to give up after two falls from Erwan Nigon and Jason Pridmore.

At SERT, the disappointment was visible for Dominique Meliand because Vincent Philippe, Anthony Delhalle and Julien da Costa are only a handful of seconds behind the Suzuki Kagayama, but they still take the lead in the provisional classification of the world endurance championship. 2013.

"An indescribable feeling"

"Winning the Suzuka 8 Hours is an indescribable feeling, it’s one of the most beautiful races in the world!", Rejoices Michael Van Der Mark, driver of the Musashi RT Harc-Pro, whose first experience was Suzuka, while his teammate Leon Haslam confides that "the hardest part was watching Takumi defend our first place in the rain on the last half hour of the race"…

Christophe Guyot’s men (David Checa, Kenny Foray and Matthieu Lagrive) lead Honda Team Asia (Makoto Tamada, Azian Kawarkizaman and Yuki Takahashi), 6th, which ended up winning the Honda of Toho Racing with Moriwaki (Tatsuya Yamaguchi, Shinichi Ito and Kazuma Watanabe), 7th.

Monster Energy Yamaha YART finished 8th in this 36th edition of the Suzuka 8 Hours after Katsuyuki Nakasuga put the Austrian Yamaha in pole position by breaking its own 2012 lap record in 2’06.817. The R1 n ° 7 then animated the start of the race in the leading peloton before a small leak in the engine gasket forced it to stop mechanically in the pit. Given the high pace at the head of the race, he returned to the track in 11th position at halfway..

"The poker move didn’t work"

"At 1h30 from the end of the race, we were in full swing", tells Christophe Guyot, team manager of GMT94: "the 71, the 1 and the 94 were then held in less than a minute. Our delay was however not easy to overcome despite the very fast pace of our Yamaha R1. The rain suddenly had to appear 40 minutes from the end. David Checa took the opportunity to try a bet: to stay on the track with slick tires, while our competitors rushed into the pit lane to switch to rain tires. Unfortunately, the rain had to increase: one minute late, we went to one lap "… But "what David Checa achieves in the race and at the end of the course once again demonstrates all his talent and motivation", continues Christophe. "Kenny Foray and Matthieu Lagrive also did a remarkable job. The poker game did not work. A podium would have been a great reward for Michelin, for Yamaha, our partners and our team. However, we score valuable points for the world championship. Can’t wait for next year to relive the intensity of this great race! "

Tenth behind Honda Kumamoto Racing, Team R2CL (Suzuki) with Gwen Giabbani, Dylan Buisson and Masahiro Shinjo made a good entry into the top 10 after qualifying in 21st position. He is a few seconds ahead of the Kawasaki of Bolliger Team Switzerland entrusted to Horst Saiger, Roman Stamm and Daniel Sutter.

Among the other permanent teams to have made the trip to Japan, the Honda of the TT Legends in the hands of John McGuinness, Michael Rutter and Simon Andrews finished 22nd after having plunged to the bottom of the standings due to a clutch problem.

The British Honda leads the Flembbo Leader Team’s Kawasaki (Janek Prosenik, Xavier Demarey and Osamu Nishijima), 27th, while the Motobox Kremer by Shell Advance (Martin Scherrer, Timo Paavilainen and Florian Bauer) finishes 31st for its first outing in Japan.

The third and penultimate round of the 2013 World Endurance Championship will take place on August 17 in Germany with the 8 Hours of Oschersleben, while awaiting the final with the 24H Moto du Mans on September 21 and 22..

Video: the best moments of the 8H Suzuka 2013

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