Although the main headlines from the 2024 Suzuka 8 Hours race were taken by Honda, which won its 30th Suzuka crown despite a late penalty, the YART Yamaha team also made some history.

In finishing second, the Austrian YART team, which has been the sole leading Yamaha team in the Endurance World Championship since GMT94 left EWC at the end of the 2018 season, took its first-ever podium at Suzuka, where it has also been designated as the official factory entry from Yamaha since the race returned from its 2020-21 Covid-induced hiatus. A late pit stop infringement penalty for the leading #30 Team HRC bike meant YART lost out by only seven seconds in the end.

For YART, the podium was not only important for its own history, but also for its title defence. Its second place meant it finished one place ahead of the Yoshimura SERT Suzuki team, which beat the Team Kagayama Ducati to the final podium position in the final minutes of the race. SERT and YART are the primary contenders for this year's title, especially with the #5 FCC TSR Honda finishing down in 34th at Suzuka after a troubled race in Japan, and YART now holds a five-point lead over SERT with only the final round at the Bol d'Or remaining on 14-15 September.

“I am delighted with this podium; it has always been our dream as a team, and we have finally achieved it," said YART's Marvin Fritz following the Suzuka race. "We pushed all the way against the factory Honda squad and can be proud of how close we came to winning it in the end.

"I am really happy with my race pace. My teammates did an amazing job, and we kept up the pressure to the end. We have shown that we can compete with the very best, and standing on the podium here at Suzuka will live with me forever.

"I want to thank the whole team, Yamaha, Bridgestone and everyone else who made this podium possible. Now we head into the Bol d’Or leading the championship, with our destiny in our own hands as we look to defend our title.”

Niccolo Canepa added: “I can’t tell you what it means to me to have finished on the podium at Suzuka. This is such a tough race, and we did everything perfectly as a team to achieve this result without any mistakes, just like in Spa.

"To come so close to winning such a legendary event shows how far we have come as a team. I tried to push from the start but didn’t feel great with the soft front tyre on my first stint. This cost me a little time to the leaders, but we fought back and never gave up and showed our true character; the entire team came together to pull off a spectacular race, and now we can head into the season's final round full of confidence.”

YART's third rider, former Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup winner Karel Hanika, said: “This is a very special moment. We have shown good pace all week and continued the momentum from Spa into the race weekend.

"To ride across the finish line with the fireworks going off, knowing we had secured the podium, was an incredible feeling. Obviously, winning would have been amazing, but we gave it absolutely everything, and the whole team can be incredibly proud of what we have achieved.

"We focused on our own race and stuck to our strategy. My teammates were awesome, and we showed what we were capable of.”