Suzuka 8 Hours Gallery - Steve English On Qualifying

By David Emmett |


Jonathan Rea - Can the King of WorldSBK become the King of Suzuka?


Takumi Takahashi leads a Japanese Red Bull Honda effort


Suzuka is light and darkness - Alex Lowes is defending Yamaha's crown


Ant West will race anything, anywhere, so naturally, he's racing at Suzuka


Suzuki test rider Takuya Tsuda is getting his chance to represent for Hamamatsu


Domi Aegerter giving the Musashi Honda a handful


Michael Laverty has brought a BMW and Christian Iddon to Suzuka


An American in Japan: Moto2 rider Joe Roberts is racing a Suzuki for Team Kagayama USA


Leon Haslam is practicing for 2019 by being Jonathan Rea's teammate at Suzuka


Mr Rea, taking things seriously


And Mr Lowes, wondering how to stop Mr Rea

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Suzuka, Japan
BMW
Honda
Kawasaki
Suzuki
Yamaha
Steve English
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Comments

Would you believe Jonathan Rea did the quickest lap in the race 2 minutes 7 seconds point 527. Alex Lowes not far behind with a 2:07.611, Takaaki Nakagami 2:08.109, Bradley Ray 2:09.846 they seem to be the most rapid times I could find.

The weather played a part as far as I know, there was some rain before the start & then a bit more during the race.

Apparently Jonathan Rea made a mistake, from the EWC site " a rain shower threw Kawasaki’s plans into disarray. Jonathan Rea crashed as he was entering the pits to switch from slick to wet tyres, causing the Kawasaki squad to lose precious time. " JR can't blame Tom Sykes for that one.

Josh Hook was the first Aussie, the next was Troy Herfoss, Josh Waters finished.

Congratulations to the winners. Congrats to all the finishers. 199 laps of Suzuka in 8 hours, I am impressed.

Tha Kawasaki debrief may have read "a rain shower threw Kawasaki’s plans into disarray. Jonathan Rea crashed as he was entering the pits to switch from slick to wet tyres, causing the Kawasaki squad to lose precious time." but that is just slightly misleading.  Rea had been out in that on slicks behind the pace car for MANY laps and was a fair bit off the line when it came around on him.  Slicks dont like losing all their heat then riding on wet bitumen... hey, cold slicks dont even like DRY bitumen.  They had a chance to come in earlier but they were playing a fuel strategy game.  Everyone was praising all weekend how Rea was gonna smash it come race day and in the end, his mistake cost them the win.

 

I'm no big fan of Rea and have only seen a few minutes all in all of the Suzuka 8h race...



But your reply is kind of confusing to me.



If Rea had been out for many laps behind the pace car and Kawasaki were playing a fuel strategy game (which is part of the game in endurance racing). How come your conclusion says his mistake cost them the win? I thought pitbox-calls were coming from the pitwall? Isn't it a bit unfair towards Rea saying it was his mistake? Imho it sounds more of a team-error.

So, I say "his" fault, because in the end he is the monkey behind the handlebars.  He wanted to come in earlier and didnt.  He had been cruising for quite a long time so the tyres would have been stone cold.  He would have known that.  He fell off because he wasnt taking due care in the corner he crashed.  He was wider than the normal line and obviously wasnt riding carefully enough.  Maybe he braked or downshifted carelessly or maybe he shifted his weight wrong. The bike didnt have any mechanical or electronc issues and they don't fall over on their own.  In the end... it was his fault.