Alex Lowes’ Yamaha team tops Suzuka 8-hour timesheets in closed-off rain-hit test

So here’s some great news from the latest Suzuka 8-hour test from Japan – Alex Lowes and his Yamaha team-mate Katsuyuki Nakasuga have bagged the fastest time on the works bike.

The pair took the best time in the afternoon, two-hour session at the famous Japanese circuit with the Yamahas sitting pretty with a best of 2m 07.947 in the slippery conditions. Compare that to the previous best set by Takuya Tsuda on the Yoshimura Suzuki during a previous test when he put in a quickest time of 2m 07.479 in dry conditions and you get some idea of how quick the Yamaha is in the iffy stuff.

The factory Kawasaki team of Yanagaw, Watanabe and Leon Haslam were second quickest logging a 2m 08.072 whilst the Suzuki squad of Takahashi, van der Mark and Nicky Hayden were a long way off in third with a best of 2m 08.819.

Here’s the top ten times from the behind-closed-doors test: