Yamalube YART EWC Official Team Takes 2nd for First Ever Suzuka 8 Hours Podium

July 22, 2024

July 22, 2024—On Sunday, July 21, 2024, the 45th “Coca-Cola” Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Road Race (Suzuka 8 Hours) was held at Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture, Japan. The Yamalube YART Yamaha EWC Official Team (YART), contested the event as Yamaha’s top team, riding YZF-R1 machinery. The team completed a record 220 laps (on the same lap as the leaders) to take the checkered flag in 2nd place, achieving their best finish ever at the Suzuka 8 Hours, and earning their first-ever podium finish since their first attempt in 2004.

The result places them at top of the championship standings in the Endurance World Championship (EWC) ahead of closest rivals Yoshimura SERT Motul (Suzuki).

On Friday, YART took provisional pole position with the fastest time in the qualifying practice sessions. All three riders set times in the 2'05 range and each one bettered their own personal fastest time around Suzuka Circuit. In the Top 10 trial on Saturday the 20th, Marvin Fritz marked a time of 2’05.130—the fastest time in Yamaha 8 Hours history—on his way to taking YART's third ever pole position in the event and earning five championship points for the team.

In the race that was held on Sunday, July 21, Niccolò Canepa rode the starting stint, and although he slotted into an early lead, he dropped back to 4th by the end of his stint before handing over the team’s YZF-R1 to Marvin Fritz. On the team’s second stint, Fritz was able to recover to 2nd. The team continued to run laps in second place. Then, with less than 30 minutes remaining, the leaders were given a 40-second penalty for an infraction during a pit stop. YART tried to push to catch them, but in the end, they finished 2nd with a 7.8 second gap to the leaders. It was the first Suzuka podium finish for the team, and for Yamaha, it was the first Suzuka podium finish in five years, since the second-place result by the Yamaha Factory Racing Team in 2019.

In the EWC standings, after taking 24 points from the race and five points for pole position, YART took over the championship lead, putting them six points ahead of the next-closest team coming into the final round.

The next and final round of the EWC season will be the Bol d’Or 24-hour race on September 14-15. There, YART will be aiming to win the title for the second year in a row, and a third time in total.

Niccolò Canepa

“The only mistake we made in the race was not choosing the right front tire for the first stint. I made a good start, but immediately did not have a good feeling on the bike. So, I changed my strategy to stay in front of our rivals and not let them get past. Every time they passed me, I tried to pass them back. I held them off as long as I could, but at some point, I couldn’t anymore because the temperatures today were so extreme. It was the toughest 8 Hours race of my life.
In my second and third stints, I had a much better pace than before. We were controlling the gap from behind, but we had the feeling that HRC were controlling the gap on us, so the race was kind of frozen. It feels amazing to be on the podium. Thanks to my teammates and to the team, because they did an incredible job with every pit stop so we didn’t even have to think about the teams behind us.
We have been the strongest EWC team all year. Even if we finished 3rd in Le Mans, we were by far the strongest in that race. We dominated in Spa, and we dominated here as well if you consider only the regular EWC teams. I’m not afraid of the Bol d’Or, even with the 2 km straight, but this year I think we are the strongest team in the EWC, the team atmosphere is great, and we want to win this championship again.”

Marvin Fritz

“This was the hottest, toughest 8 Hours race I’ve ever done. The heat and humidity made it hard to stay concentrated, especially the last seven, eight laps, I was almost dizzy. But we never gave up, and I’m super proud of the whole team, especially because our pit stops were the fastest and we didn’t make a single mistake. I’m proud of myself for having super consistent laps. In one of my stints, we kept exactly a 40-second gap to the leaders for the entire stint, so I’m happy with the consistency. For a team from Austria to come here and compete with the big teams, and in the end only lose by 7.8 seconds, it’s amazing. When we saw the penalty, we told Karel to push but it was already too late. We came here with a one-point gap to the leaders, now we leave six points ahead of them, so I’m happy. I’m confident for the Bol d’Or, and the goal is to make it back-to-back titles there.”

Karel Hanika

“It was the hardest race of my career with these conditions. It was so tough mentally, because you feel like you just want to go back to the box because your whole body hurts. But the team was working so hard and I didn’t want to let them down, so I pushed as hard as I could. My first stint was not so good, so we changed the strategy for the second stint. On the third stint the goal was just to bring the bike across the finish line. There was a penalty, but I got the information with not much time left, and I pushed for the win, but it was too late.
We have been coming here to try for the podium since 2022, and this year we could finally reach it. I’m super proud of my teammates as they did an awesome job throughout the week. I hope we can repeat this again in one year’s time. It feels awesome to stand here because the fans are the best in the world. We achieved what we wanted, to get some points over our main competitors. It’s only a few points though, so it’s going to be a big battle in the last race, but we have shown that we have the #1 on our bike for a reason, and I we’ll give 100% to bring the second title in a row to Yamaha.”

Team Manager Mandy Kainz

“We did exactly what we wanted to do, and that is to run a perfect race, and to not worry about the other teams. The start was the usual Canepa style, he had a perfect start and led the race. But we made the wrong choice with the tires, and because of that he dropped back. We hadn’t experienced these temperatures in the pre-event tests at all. That’s why the race was slower. Coming in we easily had a race pace in the 2’07s, but in this race the pace ended up being ’08, 09’, ’10. The temperatures were extreme, so just to finish without any problem was amazing. Big thanks to all the staff for the fastest pit stops of the whole paddock and of the day.
When the leaders got a 40-second penalty, there wasn’t much time left and we had to decide whether to push and take big risks for the win, or settle for 2nd place. Honestly, we decided to push for the win, but it was too late by then. We tried to tell Karel, but it was difficult to communicate with him while he was on the bike.
In the past few years, we’ve had to the speed to be on the podium, but we made mistakes and didn't reach it. This time we finally got what we deserved. It was great to achieve this podium with our regular lineup of riders, so a big thanks to the riders and staff, and to Yamaha and Bridgestone.
We are now six points behind going into the final round. For us, we just have to be “All in.” To go for it all the way. To be honest, the Bol d’Or is not our favorite, but it wasn't so bad last year, so we will go there in full YART attack mode!”