Bridgestone continue to dominate the Suzuka 8 Hour endurance race, after a runaway win for Yamaha Factory Racing at the weekend.
The Yamaha team comprised of Alex Lowes, Pol Espargaro and Katsuyuki Nakasuga put in a total of 218 laps and extended the world’s largest tyre manufacturers winning streak to 11 in a row.
In fact the top three teams all ran on Bridgestone tyres to give them a complete podium lockout, as did six of the top ten finishers.
Team Green Kawasaki took 2nd place, with Yoshimura Suzuki in 3rd place. Hoping to reclaim the crown for the manufacturer, Honda’s HRC squad started from 24th place on the grid after a weekend of mixed fortunes. They managed to climb as high as 8th place before an oil leak saw them pull into the pits to find the source of the problem. Add to that a penalty for speeding in the pitlane and they finished outside the top ten.
The MuSASHI RT HARC PRO Honda team consisting of Nicky Hayden, Michael van der Mark and Takumi Takahashi) retired after 144 laps.
The Suzuka round of the FIM Endurance World Championship is notoriously difficult for teams competing at every round with so many local teams taking part, but many of those running in every round of this season put in a strong enough performance to take some valuable points into the next round at Oschersleben.
Can Bridgestone make in 12 wins in a row in 2017?
Only 364 days to go until we find out…
Check out Bridgestone’s range of race tyres here.
