Pol Espargaro put the Yamaha Factory Racing Team on top of the timesheets during Thursday's opening practice sessions for the Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race. Riding on a machine shared with Tech 3 MotoGP team-mate Bradley Smith and Yamaha test rider Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Espargaro took the #21 R1 to a time of 2m 7.282s. That put the Yamaha trio almost one-second clear of nearest rivals Moriwaki Honda and 1.2s quicker than defending event winners Musashi RT Harc-Pro, whose line-up of Casey Stoner, Michael van der Mark and Takumi Takahashi were placed fifth on day one. Smith and Nakasuga backed up Espargaro's performance by also lapping in the 2m 7s. “I did the fastest lap time today, so the...
Full Story »