MotoGP star Pol Espargaro smashed the Suzuka Eight-Hours lap record to take pole position with an astonishing 2’06.000 lap in Superpole today with team-mate Kats Nakasuga only 0.059s behind him giving Yamaha the two quickest times of the session.
The Spaniard knocked six-tenths off the time set by Team Green Kawasaki’s Kazuki Watanabe set yesterday - then the quickest-ever lap of Suzuka by a Superbike - and the R1 will start from the front of the line in tomorrow’s traditional Le Mans-style running start.
Team Green were a little under three-tenths slower than Yamaha on a 2’06.287 with former MotoGP World Champion Casey Stoner putting reigning champions Musashi Honda into third place with a 2’06.335. Takaya Tsuda grabbed fourth for Yoshimura Suzuki with a 2’06.516 but was only half a second quicker than team-mate Alex Lowes.
Former British and World Superbike star Yukio Kagayama set a 2’07.990 top grab fifth for his team while Dominique Aegerter put the FCC TSR Honda into sixth place with a 2’08.076 despite a huge slide into the final chicane.
Results:
Yamaha Factory Team 2’06.000 (Espargaro)
Team Green Kawasaki 2’06.287 (Watanabe)
Musashi Honda 2’06.335 (Stoner)
Yoshimura Suzuki 2’06.516 (Tsuda)
Team Kagayama 2’07.990 (Kagayama)
FCC TSR 2’08.076 (Aegerter)
Toho Moriwaki 2’08 382 (Yamahguchi)
Trickstar Kawasaki 2’08.950 (Nigon)
Sakurai Dream Honda 2’09.409 (Uramoto)
Motomap Suzuki 2’11.019 (Ogata)
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