All YART Riders in 2'05s for P1

Saturday's action for the 44th FIM World Endurance Championship "Coca-Cola" Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Road Race got underway in the morning, starting with a second official qualifying session, QP2. Just as in QP1 the day before, each of YART's three riders had a 20-minute time attack each, divided by armband color. Wearing the blue armband was Niccolò Canepa, with Marvin Fritz wearing yellow, and Karel Hanika wearing red.

The Yamalube YART Yamaha EWC Official Team's strategy the day before hed been to conserve tires, with Canepa using new tires front and rear and Hanika only a new rear, which left them with plenty to use for Saturday's QP2, where all three riders had fresh tires available as they went out to try to clock the quickest time in their respective sessions.

The sessions were in the same order as QP1, so it was blue rider Canepa went out first, with fresh tires in the front and rear of his YZF-R1. His 2'05.948 lap time was more than 5 tenths faster than the previous day's 2'06.513. It was YART's first time in the '05 range for the weekend, and marked the top time in the session.

Fritz soon followed for the yellow rider session, where he had a new rear tire fitted. The day before, he was on used tires and set a 2'07.084 with red flag interruptions, but his first attempt in QP2 he set a blistering 2'05.847, then followed it up with a second attempt of 2'05.845, which was a mere 0.002 seconds faster, but it put him on top of the timing sheets.

Last year in 2022, red armband rider Hanika set the team's fastest time of 2'05.769. This year for QP2 he began his time attack with a fresh rear tire, but came up just short of a 2'05 time on his first flying lap. However, on his second attempt, the timing screens showed red marks in every sector as he found a 2'05.870 to top the session. With his time, it meant that all three YART riders were in the 2'05s, that all three riders topped their respective sessions, and that YART had secured its place in the evening's Top 10 Trial in P1.

2nd Qualifying Rider Blue

Pos.	No.	Team	Machine	Time
1	7	YART Yamaha Official EWC TEAM	Yamaha	2'05.948
2	33	Team HRC with Japan Post	Honda	2'06.235
3	17	Astemo Honda Dream SI Racing	Honda	2'06.730
4	12	Yoshimura SERT Motu	Suzuki	2'06.972
5	73	SDG Honda Racing	Honda	2'07.146
6	95	S-PLUSE DREAM RACING -ITEC	Suzuki	2'07.556
7	88	Honda Asia-Dream Racing with SHOWA	Honda	2'07.685
8	37	BMW MOTORRAD WORLD ENDURANCE TEAM	BMW	2'07.726
9	1	F.C.C. TSR Honda France	Honda	2'07.849
10	76	AutoRace Ube Racing Team	Suzuki	2'07.885

2nd Qualifying Rider Yellow

Pos.	No.	Team	Machine	Time
1	7	YART Yamaha Official EWC TEAM	Yamaha	2'05.845
2	12	Yoshimura SERT Motul	Suzuki	2'06.283
3	71	Honda Dream RT SAKURAI HONDA	Honda	2'07.454
4	50	TEAM KODAMA	Yamaha	2'07.478
5	33	Team HRC with Japan Post	Honda	2'07.532
6	76	AutoRace Ube Racing Team	Suzuki	2'07.699
7	11	Kawasaki Webike Trickstar	Kawasaki	2'07.731
8	17	Astemo Honda Dream SI Racing	Honda	2'08.327
9	31	HAMAMATSU TEAM TITAN	Suzuki	2'08.534
10	1	F.C.C. TSR Honda France	Honda	2'08.551

2nd Qualifying Rider Red

Pos.	No.	Team	Machine	Time
1	7	YAMALUBE YART YAMAHA EWC Official Team	Yamaha	2:05.870
2	104	TOHO Racing	Honda	2:06.942
3	33	Team HRC with Japan Post	Honda	2:06.976
4	95	S-PLUSE DREAM RACING -ITEC	Suzuki	2:07.215
5	73	SDG Honda Racing	Honda	2:07.313
6	71	Honda Dream RT SAKURAI HONDA	Honda	2:07.481
7	12	Yoshimura SERT Motul	Suzuki	2:07.547
8	11	Kawasaki Webike Trickstar	Kawasaki	2:08.661
9	25	Honda Sofukai Suzuka Racing Team	Honda	2:08.795
10	74	AKENO SPEED	Yamaha	2:09.199