Monster Energy Yamaha YART in pole position at Suzuka

Katsuyuki Nakasuga clinched pole position for Monster Energy Yamaha YART on the grid of the Suzuka 8 hours, third round of the FIM Endurance World Championship, with a laptime of 2'06.845 in this afternoon's Top 10 Trial, setting a new circuit record in Endurance. The Japanese rider placed the Austrian Yamaha with its Michelin tyres ahead of two of the favourites for victory, both running on Bridgestone, the Honda of the Musashi RT Harc-Pro and the Yoshimura Suzuki Racing Team.After the Top 10 Trial, Katsuyuki Nakasuga seemed to have amazed himelf! His achievement also seems to have left his team at a loss for words. "Unbelievable!" was the only word uttered by Monster Energy Yamaha YART team-manager Mandy Kainz. The last time a Yamaha was in pole position at Suzuka 8 hours was in 2000 on the back of a performance by Noriyuki Haga.This year's Superpole session also saw exciting performances by the two Musashi RT Harc-Pro riders, Ryuichi Kiyonari with a laptime of 2'07.063 and Takumi Takahashi getting round in 2'07.624, a whole second and a half under his time in the qualifiers. Yoshimura Suzuki Racing Team, ahead of the field coming out of the qualifiers, was unable to hold on its first place despite a lap by Josh Walters in 2'07.297.Having moved back into to leading pack in yesterday afternoon's qualifiers, FCC TSR Honda will be starting from the fourth place on the grid ahead of the astonishing Honda of Toho Racing with Moriwaki, Eva RT Trick Star's Kawasaki, and Honda Dream RT Sakurai.The day's biggest disappointment was for the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team. Yukio Kagayama and Vincent Philippe were unable to improve on their times in the qualifiers, which put them in fourth place on yesterday's timesheets. The Suzuki Endurance Racing Team will be starting in eighth place on the grid ahead of the Honda of Teluru Kohara RT and team Honda Asia.The race will start tomorrow at 11 h 30, local time, for an evening finish at 19 h 30.ResultsProvisional starting Grid

Source: http://www.fim-live.com/en/media/news/news-detail/article/1343474425-monster-energy-yamaha-yart-in-pole-position-at-suzuka/

Tomoyoshi Koyama Ewald Kluge Bruno Kneubühler Randy Krummenacher Hiroaki Kuzuhara