Team Kawasaki SRC sized up the Suzuka circuit on the ZX-10R 2016, picking up speed from one session to the next. Gregory Leblanc, Matthieu Lagrive and Jérémy Guarnoni (standing in for Fabien Foret, who is laid up with phlebitis) rounded off qualifying with an encouraging best time of 2’10.601, using race tyres. Gregory was the fastest on the Japanese track, while Matthieu Lagrive and Jérémy Guarnoni (for whom it’s the first time at Suzuka) posted similar lap times, in the 2’11 range.
“We’re got better with each session,” says Kawasaki SRC team manager Gilles Stafler, “but we’re paying for our lack of tests, especially at Suzuka – where they shave off at least a second per lap! We have a new bike and Pirelli tyres with new specs, and we’ve been fine-tuning the electronics on the bike since the start of the season. So we took part in qualifying with race tyres with a focus on the actual race on Sunday rather than the starting grid.”
 
The Kawasaki with the best performance was evidently factory-backed Team Green’s bike with Akira Yanagawa, Kazuki Watanabe and Leon Haslam – who posted the team’s fastest lap time of 2’07.563. So Team Green will be in Saturday’s Top 10 Trial: the superpole that will decide the top 10 positions on the starting grid.
 
It’s also worth noting that Eva RT Trick Star will be starting the race from 14th on the grid thanks to a 2’09.699 lap by Erwan Nigon, while RS-Itoh posted a 2’11.929 lap in qualifying to place 28th on the grid.
 
The 39th edition of the Suzuka 8 Hours will be flagged off at 11.30am local time (GMT+9) this Sunday.

Qualifying overall results