Race report
FIM Endurance Suzuka 8 Hours
Smith, Espargaro seal Suzuka 8 Hours win for Yamaha
The factory Yamaha team secured its first Suzuka 8 Hours win in 19 years with its riders Bradley Smith, Pol Espargaro and Katsuyuki Nakasuga.
Jamie Klein
Edited: Jul 26, 2015, 8:40 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The trio were the dominant force for much of the distance aboard the #21 YZF-R1, taking Yamaha's first victory in the event since 1996 to coincide with the company's 60th anniversary.
Aided by the early demise of defending champions HARC-Pro Honda when two-time MotoGP champion Casey Stoner suffered a spectacular crash, Yamaha moved into the lead shortly after the ensuing Safety Car period as Smith passed the #778 Honda of Josh Hook.
Yamaha's progress was later delayed by a 30-second penalty for ignoring yellow flags, handing the impetus back to the FCC TSR squad of Hook, Kyle Smith and Dominique Aegerter.
But the Honda couldn't run the same pace of the Yamaha, and although the two bikes would exchange the lead several more times as differing pit strategies panned out, the speed advantage of the Yamaha was simply too much to overcome.
A late Safety Car period failed to derail the Yamaha challenge, with Smith taking over the #21 machine from Nakasuga in the final half hour to secure the win ahead of Aegerter's #778 Honda by a margin of 1m17s.
Third place went to the all-Japanese trio of Yukio Kagayama, Noriyuki Haga and Ryuichi Kiyonari, a lap down on the #17 Team Kagayama Suzuki, ahead of the #30 Suzuki of Le Mans 24 Hours victors Vincent Philippe, Anthony Delhalle and Etienne Masson.
The #12 Yoshimura Suzuki of Alex Lowes, Josh Waters and Takuya Tsuda finished fifth, but had been a factor at the front in the early stages before a crash for Tsuda necessitated a lengthy stop for repairs and dropped the team out of lead contention.
Race results top 10:
Pos. No. Riders Bike Time/Gap 1 21 Katsuyuki Nakasuga
Pol Espargaro
Bradley Smith Yamaha 8:00'29.708 2 778 Josh Hook
Dominique Aegerter
Kyle Smith Honda 1'17.411 3 17 Yukio Kagayama
Noriyuki Haga
Ryuichi Kiyonari Suzuki 1 Lap 4 30 Vincent Philippe
Anthony Delhalle
Etienne Masson Suzuki 2 Laps 5 12 Takuya Tsuda
Alex Lowes
Josh Waters Suzuki 3 Laps 6 94 David Checa
Kenny Foray
Mathieu Gines Yamaha 3 Laps 7 111 Julien Da Costa
Sebastien Gimbert
Freddy Foray Honda 3 Laps 8 25 Daijiro Hiura
Takashi Yasuda
Yuudai Kamei Honda 4 Laps 9 87 Akira Yanagawa
Kazuki Watanabe
Haji Ahmad Yudhistira Kawasaki 5 Laps 10 32 Yoshihiro Konno
Nobuatsu Aoki
Hideyuki Ogata Suzuki 5 Laps
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Narendran wins race two; Parekh leads the championship
Next article Has Stewart found his mojo?
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jamie Klein
Super Formula Fuji: Ayumu Iwasa wins as Kakunoshin Ohta misses chance to seal title
Super Formula
Super Formula
Fuji II
Super Formula Fuji: Ayumu Iwasa wins as Kakunoshin Ohta misses chance to seal title
Super Formula Fuji: Igor Fraga wins while Kakunoshin Ohta closes on title
Super Formula
Super Formula
Fuji II
Super Formula Fuji: Igor Fraga wins while Kakunoshin Ohta closes on title
More from
Bradley Smith
Aprilia names three riders for 2021 MotoGP season
MotoGP
MotoGP
Aprilia names three riders for 2021 MotoGP season
Smith a “valid option” for Aprilia MotoGP race seat
MotoGP
MotoGP
Smith a “valid option” for Aprilia MotoGP race seat
Le Mans MotoGP: Smith quickest for Aprilia in wet FP1
MotoGP
MotoGP
French GP
Le Mans MotoGP: Smith quickest for Aprilia in wet FP1
Latest news
Has Marco Bezzecchi finally rediscovered his early-season MotoGP form?
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
6 min
Has Marco Bezzecchi finally rediscovered his early-season MotoGP form?
Fangio, Haywood deadline third batch of Sebring's 75 all-time greatest drivers
IMSA
IMSA IMSA
Sebring 12 Hours
7 min
Fangio, Haywood deadline third batch of Sebring's 75 all-time greatest drivers
F1 2026 calendar update: Imola GP off the table, no plan B if war escalates
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
52 min
F1 2026 calendar update: Imola GP off the table, no plan B if war escalates
A fond farewell to a few WEC favourites
WEC
Monza
A fond farewell to a few WEC favourites
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe