Nakasuga, Espargaro and Smith won the Suzuka 8 Hours race while Stoner broke his leg and shoulder.
MotoGP racers Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith, alongside Katsuyuki Nakasuga won the Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race. Yamaha Factory Racing Team took advantage of Casey Stoner’s crash which ended up with a broken leg and shoulder for the Australian former MotoGP racer.
Double MotoGP World Champion Casey Stoner was leading the Suzuka 8-Hours endurance race on his MuSASHI RT HARC-PRO Honda bike. Unfortunately, a stuck throttle forced him to retire with a huge crash that broke his leg and shoulder.
“Well my #Suzuka8H ended spectacularly! Stuck Throttle = Broken Scapula + Fractured Tibia and a few more tweaks. Sucks!” says Stoner on Twitter. “Sorry to my team @mickeyvdmark, Takumi Takahashi and the entire crew, they have worked too hard to end it like that. Thank you guys!” he added.
The crash left a lot of damages on the Honda CBR 1000RR and MuSASHI Honda Team was forced to retire. This was good news for the Yamaha Factory Racing Team. The team scored a historical win thanks to MotoGP racers Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith, alongside Katsuyuki Nakasuga who put the R1 on the highest step of the podium. Yamaha won for the first time since 1996 in Japan’s most prestigious race.
Provisional Race Results:
- Yamaha Factory Racing Team (Katsuyuki Nakasuga/Pol Espargaro/Bradley Smith), Yam YZF-R1, 204 laps
- F.C.C. TSR Honda (Josh Hook/Kyle Smith/Dominique Aegerter), Hon CBR1000RR, 204 laps, -77.411 seconds
- Team Kagayama (Yukio Kagayama/Noriyuki Haga/Yukio Kagayama), Suz GSX-R1000, 203 laps
- Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (Vincent Philippe/Anthony Delhalle/Etienne Masson), Suz GSX-R1000, 202 laps
- Yoshimura Suzuki Shell Advance (Takuya Tsuda/Josh Waters/Alex Lowes), Suz GSX-R1000, 201 laps
- GMT94 Yamaha (David Checa/Kenny Foray/Mathieu Gines), Yam YZF-R1, 201 laps, -8.158 seconds
- Honda Endurance Racing (Julien Da Costa/Sebastien Gimbert/Freddy Foray), Hon CBR1000RR, 201 laps, -76.811 seconds
- Honda Suzuka Racing Team (Daijiro Hiura/Yudai Kamei/Takashi Yasuda), Hon CBR1000RR, 200 laps
- Team GREEN (Akira Yanagawa/Haji Ahmad Yudhistira/Kazuki Watanabe), Kaw ZX-10R, 199 laps
- MotoMap Supply (Yoshihiro Konno/Nobuatsu Aoki/Hideyuki Ogata), Suz GSX-R1000, 199 laps, -12.980 seconds
Foto: moto.it, visordown.com