Suzuka 8 Hours as it happened | Honda favourites to reclaim prestigious title

So that is that - Honda reigns victorious at Suzuka once again with as peerless a performance over 8 hours of racing you'll ever see.

Full Suzuka 8 Hours RACE RESULTS
Suzuka 8 Hours RACE REPORT

Congratulations for Honda, commiserations (of sorts) for KRT and YART and a big 'we'll miss you' card for the soon-to-depart Suzuki.

Most of all, sending our very best to Gino Rea for a speed recovery from his injuries

Until next year,

Arigato gozaimas for reading and sayonara!

After a disastrous build up on a circuit that hasn't been kind to it in the past, SERT Suzuki grabbed some fortune in the final hour to secure third place in what could be its final ever outing as a factory-backed effort.

Their fortune came at the expense of YART Yamaha, which in the final hour suffered a tyre change issue, a crash into the barriers and a penalty to go from second to seventh.

S-Pulse Suzuki won the battle of the Japanese home favourites in fourth, from the Toho Honda in fifth and the Sakurai Honda in sixth.

Behind YART, ATJ Honda was eighth ahead of Koyama Yamaha, while FCC TSR sneaked into the top ten having spent much of the race fighting back from earlier brake problems

Result and Report to follow

KRT finishes a lap down in second position after a frustrating race heavily affected by an ill-timed Safety Car that cost it 50secs to HRC.

Already faced with an uphill task, Rea's crash while trying to close the 1min+ margin effectively eliminated its shot at victory

Tetsuta Nagashima brings the Fireblade home for Honda's 28th Suzuka 8 Hours win, but its first since 2014.

Choosing Nagashima is reflective of the ex-Moto2 rider's career-making performance on a weekend that didn't just see him make his Suzuka 8 Hours debut, but his debut race at Suzuka and on a Superbike.

Easily the quickest rider all weekend, despite having not raced since the end of 2020 when he quit Moto2, Nagashima was nonetheless backed up by superb stints from Takumi Takahashi, landing his third win, and Iker Lecuona, who gets to join an exclusive list of MotoGP alumni to win the historic race

Tetsuta Nagashima comes into the final corner with 20secs remaining and slows right down... is he taking the flag? Nope, he scampers across the line with 5secs remaining for a 214th and final lap!

One minute to go and we're into the final lap... this is where it all went wrong for Kawasaki and Suzuki in 2019, remember...

Tell you what, it always surprises me just how quick dark descends given we were watching bikes in daylight racing not long ago... this is despite such a phenomenon occurring every single day.

Ok, perhaps that says more about me... or the resolution on the screen is wrong

Point is, it looks really dark for tired eyes!

Everything is settling down with 10mins to go now, though S-Pulse Suzuki is now back ahead of Toho Honda in what has been a race-long fight for fourth

What a ROTTEN half-an-hour or so for YART Yamaha

It was on course for second place when:

1hr to go - Loses time during pit-stop with a rear tyre issue, costing it second position to KRT Kawasaki

50mins to go - Marvin Fritz collides with Akeno Speed Yamaha at Spoon Curve and piles into air barrier. Yamaha recovered and returned to circuit as Safety Car is deployed.

40mins to go - Rapid repairs get the bike back on track in seventh place, before Karel Hanika gets back up to eighth when race restarts

NOW...

30mins to go - Given a stop and go penalty dropping YART back to seventh

Just get back to the flag safely, Karel!

30mins to go and the sun is clinging on to the horizon

But within a few minutes the Suzuka Circuit will be plunged into darkness as we enter these last few laps.

In the meantime:

- Tetsuta Nagashima has just clocked HRC Honda's 200th lap up front

- Ryuichi Kiyonari (Toho Honda) has snatched fourth from Atsumi Cocoro (S-Pulse Suzuki) 

- FCC TSR Honda pair has finally broken back into the top ten in ninth

So, what caused the YART incident?

A tangle between it and the Akeno Speed Yamaha - running second in SSTK - at Spoon Curve sends the two bikes and riders (Riku Sugawara) barrelling into the air-barrier in the same spot where Uramoto and Sakumoto crashed early on.

Frantic recovery hauls the YART out of the barriers and on its way back to the pits, with the Safety Car called to repair that barrier once again.

No injuries but a second blow to that barrier might run down more of that 45mins remaining than you might expect

Just as I finish writing this, YART and Karel Hanika have returned to circuit in seventh.

S-Pulse Suzuki, Sakurai Honda and Toho Honda shift up a position each to fourth, fifth and sixth.

Crash between the #7 YART Yamaha and the #74 AKENO SPEED YAMAHA!
-Safety Car -#Suzuka8hours#FIMEWCpic.twitter.com/mrGtVvtTYA

— FIM EWC (@FIM_EWC) August 7, 2022

Marvin Fritz dropped the Yamaha at the start of the final hour as he attempted to make up time to KRT following its issues during the last pit-stop.

Dragging it out of the barriers, Fritz got back underway and is now in the pit lane.

As for the damage to YART's otherwise faultless race, it is already off the podium, with SERT Suzuki lifted up to third now, though it is benefiting from the Safety Car that it caused to slow the pace down on track while high-speed repairs take place in the garage.

Despite the Safety Car - which arguably ruined KRT's chances of victory earlier on in the race - the margin of a lap between it and HRC means it is unlikely to claw itself back into victory contention

7hr completed | 1hr to go

- We are into the FINAL hour of the Suzuka 8 Hours 

- No murmurs out front for the dominant #33 Team HRC Honda. It's more than a lap ahead of the competition, though it has started easing back the intensity of its rapid pace

- Jonathan Rea had been hunting down Niccolo Canepa in the fight for second, but a rear wheel issue for the YART Yamaha lost precious seconds that should enable KRT to get back on track after its stop in second

- 4. SERT Suzuki, 5. S-Pulse Suzuki, 6. Sakurai Honda, 7. Toho Honda, 8. Kodama Yamaha, 9. ATJ Honda, 10. Honda Asia Dream

As we mentioned below, the ninth place Honda Asia Dream Racing entry is on course for a top ten finish with three of Honda's contenders in the Asia Road Racing Championship.

While it has been a steep learning curve for Malaysian pair Zaqhwan Zaidi and Helmi Azuman, plus Indonesia's Garry Salim, the trio have run without fault and picked off rivals that have run into trouble.

The Asia Road Racing Championship is largely centred around south-east Asia with events in Buriram (Thailand) and Sepang (Malaysia), but also the former WorldSBK venue of Sugo in Japan.

With 16 of its Fireblades on the 45-bike grid, Honda certainly had strength in numbers this year.

But while Team HRC are dominating out front, it's otherwise been a bit of a mixed bag for manufacturer overall...

- Right back at the beginning of the race, Honda lost two entries with top five potential on Lap 2 when Terusuke Sakumoto dropped the Astemo bike coming into the Spoon Curve, with the errant machine smashing into the hapless Naomichi Uramoto on the SDG entry, taking both out

- A third of Honda's six top ten qualifiers - the Sofukai Honda - then crashed heavily an hour into the race (below)

Massive crash for bike #25 - Rider OK!#Suzuka8hours#FIMEWCpic.twitter.com/pcXMKGs7WN

— FIM EWC (@FIM_EWC) August 7, 2022

- The FCC TSR Honda got away best and led the opening lap with Josh Hook before settling in fifth. However, periods in the pits to cure brake problems dropped it as low as 19th. It is now running 11th

- Beyond HRC, Toho Honda is the firm's best-placed privateer entry in sixth position, with the Sakurai Honda behind it in seventh.

- A fourth Honda entry - the Honda Asia Dream Racing team - is running an impressive eighth (more above)

6hr 30m completed | 1hr 30m to go

Six-time WorldSBK Champion Jonathan Rea is showing exactly why he is that as he gets his head down and pulls chunks of time out of the gap to Niccolo Canepa on the YART Yamaha ahead in second place.

The margin between the pair has been almost halved to just 11secs as the Ulsterman - who was responsible for the crash that effectively cost KRT second position earlier in the race - tries to make amends.

Without a problem for HRC Honda though, second position looks to be the best that KRT and Kawasaki can hope for today...

The sun is finally starting to set as the Suzuka 8 Hours heads towards dusk over the next hour before the final hour takes place in predominant darkness... just what you need after 7 hours of non-stop racing around the thrilling but demanding Suzuka Circuit

The setting of the sun, however, will be welcomed by the riders - such as Alex Lowes here - though as it will take the edge off persistently high temperatures and oppressive humidity... 

UPDATED: GOOD NEWS EVERYBODY! The Team de"LIGHT" Ducati is BACK in the race... somehow... we won't ask questions. Rules that seemingly allow full repair jobs might explain why - after several crashes and technical dramas - we actually only have... 1 retirement. That's the factory BMW but that's probably just because someone hasn't read the rule book properly...

Boooo... my favourite solo Ducati entry from Team de"LIGHT" has sprung a leak in a alarming fashion on its way down the home straight.

What was initially feared as an engine blow looks like something more harmless, which is just as well because the Panigale V4 R endured a long death before it was pulled off track...

Team de"DISAPPOINTED" Ducati is out :-(

Broken engine for bike #61 #Suzuka8hours#FIMEWCpic.twitter.com/jkpmE658fJ

— FIM EWC (@FIM_EWC) August 7, 2022

YART in second and KRT in third are circulating a bit out-of-sync at the moment with the former pitting around 14 laps earlier than the latter

However, having reclaimed second when KRT did eventually pit, Karel Hanika has increased YART's margin over Alex Lowes to a (fluctuating) 17secs.

SERT Suzuki is on the same lap the bikes ahead but otherwise on its own in fourth.

We should mention here that much of the field here is made up of SSTK-spec machines competing for glory in their own class.

Leading the way right now in 12th overall is the Plaza Kawasaki of Ryosuke Iwato, Yuta Okaya and Naoki Kiyosue.

It is followed in second (14th overall) by the Akeno Speed Yamaha of Yuta Date, Riku Sugawara and Maiki Abe, son of late former GP front runner Norifumi Abe and - at 18-years old - the youngest rider in this race.

At the other end of the scale, meanwhile, is 50-year old Nobu Aoki who - in his final race before retiring from a career spanning 32 years - is on course for a podium aboard the Teramoto@J-Trip Suzuki alongside Koji Teramoto and Kazuma Tsuda.