YART Takes 8 Hours Pole Position for the Third Time!
On Friday in the qualifying sessions, all three Yamalube YART Yamaha EWC Official Team riders went out with fresh tires for their first run and all set times in the 2'05 range, besting their own personal fastest times around Suzuka Circuit to show their year-on-year progress. The result was that YART came into Saturday and the Top 10 Trial on provisional pole position by a margin of about 0.5 seconds over the next-fastest DUCATI Team KAGAYAMA.
In the past, YART has always held to the idea that the most important thing is the race itself and how many points they can take away from it, but when the chance presented itself to get revenge for losing out on pole position by 0.2 of a second to Team HRC with Japan Post (Honda) in last year's qualifying session (as the Top 10 Trial was cancelled), YART was ready. For this year's Top 10 Trial, YART chose two riders: Karel Hanika, who set the fastest overall time in qualifying, and teammate Marvin Fritz.
Yamaha has secured pole position at the 8 Hours several times in recent years, having taken it with Yamaha Factory Racing Team rider Katsuyuki Nakasuga in 2017 and 2019 (though the Top 10 Trial was cancelled that year). Since then, Yamaha has not had a repeat pole, and as such was aiming for the first in five years.
First up in the Top 10 Trial were teams ranked 10th to 6th, and after they all had a chance to set flying laps, it was the BMW MOTORRAD WORLD ENDURANCE TEAM who had the fastest time with a 2'05.971, the only time in the 2'05 range among those riders. Up next were the teams in the top five, which gave YART its first chance at setting fast laps.
From this point it was a fierce battle among the top teams including EWC title contender Yoshimura SERT Motul, last year's 8 Hours winners Team HRC with Japan Post (with a MotoGP rider on the team), and DUCATI Team KAGAYAMA, which was competing on factory machinery. Marvin Fritz, who was the 15th rider to take to the track, came through the first three sectors fastest, and in the end went quicker than all 15 of his rivals to secure provisional pole with a time of 2'05.130, eclipsing his own personal best time of 2'05.252 that he had set on Friday.
After that, the second riders of the top-five group came out to do flying laps, one after another. Johann Zarco (Honda) set a 2'05.531, who was followed by Ducati rider Ryo Mizuno. At that moment, Mizuno needed to set a faster time than Fritz's, otherwise YART's pole position would be confirmed. When Mizuno came across the start/finish line and set a 2'05.248, it meant that YART's pole position was already decided, even before the final rider Karel Hanika took to the track.
Hanika began his lap by coming through the first sector with a blistering pace, and was on track to set the fastest lap of the weekend before suffering a crash in Sector 2. The bike was severely damaged, but the Hanika himself was completely uninjured, which was positive news for the team.
In 2012, YART took its first Suzuka 8 Hours pole position after having welcomed top All-Japan rider Katsuyuki Nakasuga into the team for the event. The next year in 2013, YART once again added Nakasuga to its lineup and took pole position for the second year in a row. Today's pole feat marked the team's third-ever Suzuka pole position.
This also became YART's first Suzuka pole position taken by one of its regular-season riders, as Nakasuga had taken the previous two. It was the team's third pole position in succession in the 2024 EWC season, after doing the same at the opening two rounds at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 8 Hours of Spa.
Tomorrow's race is expected to be a very challenging one for the riders, with temperatures forecast to reach around 35°C, but YART is aiming to keep the momentum going and achieve its first-ever podium finish in a Suzuka 8 Hours race.
Top 10 Trial
| Pos. | No. | Team | Machine | Best Lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | YART - YAMAHA | Yamaha | 02:05.130 |
| 2 | 2 | DUCATI Team KAGAYAMA | Ducati | 02:05.248 |
| 3 | 30 | Team HRC with Japan Post | Honda | 02:05.531 |
| 4 | 37 | BMW MOTORRAD WORLD ENDURANCE TEAM | BMW | 02:05.971 |
| 5 | 12 | Yoshimura SERT Motul | Suzuki | 02:06.097 |
| 6 | 73 | SDG Team HARC-PRO. Honda | Honda | 02:06.286 |
| 7 | 76 | AutoRace Ube Racing Team | Suzuki | 02:06.562 |
| 8 | 5 | F.C.C. TSR Honda France | Honda | 02:06.836 |
| 9 | 17 | Astemo Honda Dream SI Racing | Honda | 02:07.165 |
| 10 | 71 | Honda Dream RT SAKURAI HONDA | Honda | 02:07.453 |
1st Overall in Qualifying: #1 Yamalube YART Yamaha EWC Official Team (2'05.130）
Marvin Fritz
"On my flying lap I didn't make many mistakes, but I also didn't push too hard. I know I could have gone a bit faster, maybe another two or three tenths, especially in the last sector because I wasn't pushing as hard as I could. I wanted to bring the bike back safely to hand over to Karel.
When I came across the line and saw that a I got the fastest time, I was so happy. It was like a dream for me. I was also happy for the team to get the five championship points for pole, but we know that the most important part is tomorrow. It will be hot, but we have a great bike and I have great teammates, so all we need to do is focus on our race for eight hours and see the result when it's finished."
Karel Hanika
"When I was riding I didn't know that we had pole yet, so I knew I had to focus, push to my maximum and do a good lap time. I did the perfect preparation to do a fast lap, even better than I did last year, I heated up the front and the rear and tried to push. In the first sector I had a great feeling, and I had an '04 lap in the back of my mind. The corner I crashed in, my line was perfect, so I think I just carried too much corner speed. I have to say sorry to the team, but thankfully Marvin was able to take pole for us, which was great. About my physical condition after the crash, I am completely fine.
In the race tomorrow I'll do my best from my first laps. We can't predict the weather or what our rivals will do, so all we can do is focus and do the same thing we have been doing in our long runs in the practice sessions. With these three riders, and the package we have from Yamaha and Bridgestone, I think we can get a great result tomorrow. The three of us will work together and do our best."
Niccolò Canepa
"Today was a rollercoaster of emotions. Taking pole at Suzuka was really something special, because this is one of the most important races in the world. I have to say thank you to Marvin. He rode a perfect lap. Our bike is perfect, so I'm really looking forward to the race. We're the only team to have all three riders in the 2'05s. I'm happy to have two very fast teammates and I can't wait to get on track tomorrow.
I'll ride the first stint in the race, and to be honest this is something I like doing very much. First we will all ride our stints, then we will see what the situation is and plan our strategy from there."
Team Manager Mandy Kainz
"This is our third pole position at Suzuka, and it's the first we've taken without the help of Nakasuga-san. With our Top 10 result, I think we showed the potential of our team. In every session of the weekend so far, free practice, night session, qualifying, and now Top 10, we have been on top or near the top in every one, which just shows how strong YART is right now.
Karel was on a shockingly-fast lap. Looking at his time in the first sector, I think he was on for a 2'04.9 or so. Before going out he said to me "If I survive the first sector, it's going to be a super fast lap!" and it really was like that, until he went too fast in a corner in the second sector and crashed.
After he crashed there was a system issue where it showed YART in 9th place and it was like going from heaven to hell for a moment there. (The issue was resolved and YART went back to 1st on the timing screens). This is endurance racing though. Every second, you don't know what can happen, but that's also what makes this such an exciting and unpredictable sport.
We got five points for taking pole today, which means we come into the race tomorrow as the championship leaders. We are back on top now, and this is very important for us. We wanted the points today so we pushed very hard, but tomorrow in the race we will just focus on not making any mistakes. Tomorrow we have to run a clever race. We won't pay attention to what the other teams are doing, and we'll just do our own perfect race."
