All Three YART Riders in the 2'05s and Ready for the Main Event

On Day 2 of the pre-event test for the 45th "Coca-Cola" Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Road Race, cloudy skies brought relatively milder temperatures than Day 1, which allowed teams to improve on their times, and the Yamalube YART Yamaha EWC Official Team was no exception. The team focused on longer runs before switching to short time attacks to prepare for qualifying practice at the main event, during which they bettered their fastest times for the test.

For Day 2, Session 5 began at 9:30 a.m., and was followed by Session 6 at 2:00 p.m., with both lasting 80 minutes in total. The long session times allowed for longer race simulation runs to be made. Once these were complete in Session 5, Niccolò Canepa and Marvin Fritz both went out with fresh tires and pushed for fast lap times, with both eventually setting consecutive laps in the 2'06 range, with fastest times of 2'06.137 and 2'06.198 respectively, improving on Canepa's fastest time from Day 1.

Although single-lap times are not as important in endurance races like the 8 Hours, the team was able to finish one-two in front of rivals Ducati Team KAGAYAMA, Yoshimura SERT Motul and Team HRC in the session. YART's race pace was consistently in the 2'07 range, which demonstrated the level to which the team is already performing in the leadup to the race.

In Session 6, the final session of the test, Ducati Team KAGAYAMA set a 2'05.162 to top the session, which would go on to be the fastest time of the test. YART spent most of the testing time working on longer race simulations, but once again at the end of the session fresh tires were put on the YZF-R1s and the riders went out to work on single-lap pace to prepare for qualifying. They could not quite match their rivals' times, but all three YART riders set laps in the 2'05.6-7 range. Those times were on par with qualifying times from last year's 8 Hours, confirming that everything within the team is proceeding well and according to plan as the test came to a close.

Karel Hanika

"Today we worked on the geometry, suspension and electronics a little bit each, and we found something positive compared to yesterday. We worked on track to help each other with our riding, so overall the test was good. We have a few small things to improve, but they are not major, and all three of us are fast. We know our rivals will be strong, but we saw when we did long runs today that we are very competitive. We tried out some different tires and saw which worked well for the end of the stint, so I feel like we've done everything we needed to do in this test and we're ready for the race weekend. There are still some small things to improve, of course. In the month until the race, I'll train like I normally do, but I know the 8 Hours will be hot like always, and luckily it's also getting hot where I live, so I'll work on doing cardio outdoors in the heat to be in the best physical condition."

Niccolò Canepa

"Everything went so well yesterday that we didn't have so much to do today. Still, we did work a bit on the geometry, suspension and electronics. Compared to the other teams, I think we did a very good job yesterday and today. We weren't trying so hard to set a qualifying lap time, but we worked more on our race pace, and in the long runs we did, that pace was very good. At the end of the session we put on new tires and tried a time attack. All three of us were very fast, and this is great because that's the goal of our team, for all three to be on the same level. To prepare for the 8 Hours, I'll do some training but mostly I need to focus on recovering my injured shoulder. Between competing at Spa and doing some superbike testing I have put a lot of stress on it, so now I need to do some physiotherapy, rest and recover."

Marvin Fritz

"All we worked on were small things, mostly with the riding position, electronics and front suspension. We did some long runs to check our fuel consumption and after that did a time attack, where I was able to set a personal best here at Suzuka of a 2'05.6. We can still improve some things, but overall I'm happy. Of course our rivals also set fast times today, but we can still go even faster I think, so I'm not too worried. In my last long run, (Johann) Zarco was in front of me and I was able to keep up with him and learn some things by watching him ride. Overall, I think we gained a lot of confidence for the race. To get ready, I'll be training even harder than I usually do."

Team Manager Mandy Kainz

"In the test we had no mistakes, no problems at all, so if the actual race weekend is this trouble-free, we'd be very happy. The bike, the tires, the riders and the mechanics all did their jobs perfectly. So perfectly that it's almost scary! We were trying to work on race pace, and on average our lap times are 1 second faster than last year's, so we're satisfied with this. I think the test overall has given the riders more confidence. If we can do exactly the same thing in three weeks, we'll have very good results at the 8 Hours. I would say we're ready to race right now, as we are, but we need the time for Niccolò to recover his shoulder."