The Honda Racing Endurance World Championship team completed official qualifying for the 2014 Suzuka 8 Hours as the highest-placed permanent EWC contender and the seventh fastest team overall. The result sees the squad qualify for tomorrow’s Top 10 Trial, which will determine the final grid positions for Sunday’s race.
Timed qualifying, which was divided into three 30-minute sessions with each rider completing one apiece, took place this afternoon in incredibly hot conditions with temperatures reaching 37°c. Sebastien Gimbert was first up for Honda Racing and put in an impressive lap of 2’09.104 to place third fastest, ending his session as the quickest Honda rider on track. Julien Da Costa and Freddy Foray followed with 2’10.662 and 2’10.694 respectively.
In accordance with Suzuka 8 Hours rules, the final positions are determined by the team’s single fastest time. Gimbert’s lap places Honda Racing seventh overall, meaning the team will take part in tomorrow’s Top 10 Trial - the only permanent EWC squad to do so. The MuSashi RT Harc-Pro team, which includes Pata Honda World Superbike and Supersport riders Leon Haslam and Michael van der Mark, secured provisional pole position.
The Suzuka 8 Hours race will begin at 11.30am JST on Sunday 27 July.
Neil Tuxworth team manager
All the free practice and qualifying sessions have gone very well with no problems whatsoever for our riders or our machinery. As always, the most difficult thing here in Japan is to dealing with the intense heat and humidity, but the team and riders have got on with the job and we’ve qualified for the Top 10 Trial for the first time, which is an excellent achievement. Of course, the most important thing for us now is the race on Sunday and we’re hoping for a good result.
Sebastien Gimbert
I am happy after today. It was a really good session for me. This is a difficult circuit with lots of short, fast corners and chicanes but the bike is easy to ride and the tyres are working well. It is very hot but it’s not too different to where I live in the south of France so I don’t mind too much. I just want to put in a good lap time tomorrow for my team-mates, for Honda and for Dunlop and hopefully we can get a good result on Sunday.
Freddy Foray
I think the team have done a really good job so far this week. Sebastien was fast today and I want to thank him as that got us into the top ten. Tenth place for me was not so bad. The feeling on the bike was better every time I went out so we are improving and that’s a good thing for the race. I’m sure I can do better but it is my first time here, so it’s not so bad.
Julien Da Costa
Suzuka is a very difficult track and I need to do a few laps to get used to it, but I feel like I’m improving every time I go out. The bike is better with every session. To qualify in the top ten is really good and we’re happy with that. We are the only permanent EWC team in the top ten too, so this shows that we are fast in the championship. The heat is very difficult to deal with – after ten minutes everything is so hot and you feel like your head is in a boiler, but we deal with it!
