KRT Second On The Suzuka 8 Hours Grid 

Kawasaki Racing Team Suzuka 8 Hours riders Jonathan Rea, Leon Haslam and Toprak Razgatlioglu just missed out on pole position for Sunday’s race by 0.014 seconds, after the cancellation of the final Top Ten Trial qualifying session today, due to adverse weather conditions.

The Number 10 Ninja ZX-10RR team has shown great consistency and pace when it mattered at Suzuka and their combined times put them a clear second on the grid for the race.

In normal circumstances the team would have made a final push for pole position in the special Top Ten Trial session today but with persistent bad weather affecting the track conditions it was cancelled. That meant that the final grid line up would be determined from yesterday’s Overall Qualifying Classification, maintaining the KRT squad’s position in second place.

With the no competitive action taking place today the team is more than ready to race tomorrow with a clear aim to win this prestigious race, which is also the finale of the entire 2018/2019 Endurance World Championship. 

The race itself, with a ‘Le Mans’ style starting procedure, will be held on Sunday 28 July at 11.30am local time in Japan. Started in daylight, the race will finish in darkness at 19.30. At present, raceday weather conditions are forecast to be overcast but not wet.

Jonathan Rea, stated: “We are really happy with our preparations although it was an unfortunate situation that we did not get any riding done today because of the weather conditions. But, that means that we keep the second position that we secured yesterday. We are in a great starting place and we feel ready. Obviously, endurance races are long so we just need to minimise our mistakes, be consistent and see what happens. Now we will discuss strategy for the race and what will be, will be. There is a lot of support here for the team, Kawasaki and us so we will be doing our best to get a good result.”