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On Sunday the Suzuka 8 Hours was held, the third round of the Endurance world championship.
Niccolò Canepa participated in the Suzuka 8 Hours with the French GMT94 Yamaha team, with which he takes part in the entire Endurance EWC world championship.
In qualifying, the GMT94 Yamaha team focused on the bike setup based on the race. The French team that, in addition to Niccolò, also has David Checa and Lucas Mahias on the grid, uses Dunlop tyres. In the decisive qualifying session, unfortunately Checa had a small accident. Luckily, there was no damage done to the rider or the bike, but precious time was lost. When it was Canepa’s turn, the Italian rider pushed to the limit in order to at least get into the top ten, but the heavy traffic on the track frustrated his attempts and the GMT94 Yamaha qualified in twelfth place.
In the race, after just four laps, the GMT94 Yamaha had to deal with a broken rear wheel axle that damaged the rim and compromised the tyre quick-change system. It took some time to repair the system and replace the damaged parts on the bike and the team dropped down to 66th place in the standings. Showing great character and riding skills, Canepa and his teammates were able to climb their way back up to 14th place by mid race and, had they been able to continue at that pace, they would have made it into the top five. But that is not the way it went due to problems with the electrical system that compromised the lighting circuit. The team had to make three extra pit stops and consequently lost four laps before managing to solve the problem definitively. In the end, Canepa’s team brought home a commendable 14th place that, however, leaves a bitter taste because, without the technical problems the team suffered, the top five, if not a podium, would have been well within their capabilities.
“I was quite satisfied with the qualifiers even if they were very demanding. Unfortunately, we received the new Dunlop tyres too late to test them in free practice, so we had to try them in qualifying to find a good setup – Canepa explained – Unfortunately, two slower riders held me up on my best lap and we missed the top ten. At the end, I was satisfied with the bike and the performance of the team and I had high hopes for the race. After our win at Portimão, I had thought that here at Suzuka we would have been able to finish on the podium. Instead, the many technical problems we had to face kept it from us. I’m disappointed with the end result, but on the other hand we rode a good race and I had a lot of fun on the Suzuka track. But now we will look forward and I will focus on the next round in Germany.”
8h Suzuka – Final standings:
1. #21 Yamaha Factory Racing Nakasuga/Espargaro/Lowes 218 laps
2. #87 Team Green Yanagawa/Haslam/Watanabe +2m 17.883s
3. #12 Yoshimura Suzuki Tsuda/Brookes/Haga +1 lap
4. #7 YART Yamaha EWC Team Parkes/Nozane/Fujita +4 laps
5. #32 Moto Map Suzuki Waters/Aoki/Konno +4 laps
6. #17 Kagayama Suzuki Kagayama/Uramoto/Kiyonari +5 laps
7. #01 Eva RT Kawasaki Deguchi/Izutsu/Nigon +5 laps
8. #22 SatuHati Honda Team Asia Pratama/Wilairot/Zaidi +6 laps
9. #18 Mistresa ATS Honda Nakatsuhara/Kobayashi/Sekiguchi +6 laps
10. #090 Teluru RT Honda Akiyoshi/Cudlin/Ohkubo +6 laps
14. #94 GMT94 Yamaha Checa/Canepa/Mahias +8 laps
