778 FCC TSR Honda Takes Pole Position - Seven Stars Second - Masked Rider Third - Philippe Off, Kitagawa Saves Day...

The No.778 FCC TSR Honda will start on pole position for tomorrow's Suzuka 8 Hours round of the FIM World Endurance Championship.

The top twenty grid positions are decided by a high-pressure two-part super pole style Special Stage session which sees two riders from each team attempt a single ultra-fast lap time. All of the 'slower' riders from each team go first, in the "Attack" stage. The quicker riders from each team then have chance to improve on their team mate's performance in the "Jump Up" stage. The teams' fastest times from either Attack or Jump Up stage are then used to set the grid positions.

No.7 Seven Stars Honda's Toru Ukawa set the fastest time in the Attack phase with a time of 2:08.565. The No.778 FCC TSR Honda of Tsujimura was second and the No.12 Yoshimura Suzuki of Watanabe third.

Suzuki Castrol's Vincent Phillipe crashed halfway round his lap, to collective groans from the spectators packing the grandstands and pit lane. He had just set the fastest first sector split time of the day and seemed to be on the way to beating his personal best. His crash put extra pressure on Keiichi Kitagawa to do well in the "Jump Up" stage, but Special Stage old hand Kitagawa was able to pull the team back up to fifth place with a time of 2:09.616.

Yamaha YSP Presto and FCC TSR Honda No.5 then both improved their first stage times, knocking Suzuki 123 Castrol back to an eventual seventh on the grid. Kiyonari was unable to beat his Honda team mate Ukawa's time on the Jump Up stage, but Shinichi Itoh managed to shave half a second off Ukawa's time in the second to last run of the day to take pole position for FCC TSR Honda with a time of 2:08.071.

Top Ten Provisional Grid Positions