Yamaha, Honda and Kawasaki were the quickest trio of the first day of official Suzuka Eight-Hours tests on the Japanese circuit earlier today.

Yamaha Factory Racing Team, the race winners for the past three years at Suzuka, have already shot into the lead. Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark’s Yamaha #21 set the fastest lap of the day, a 2'07.379, ahead of Honda HRC’s 27.604 lap (Takumi Takahashi, Takaaki Nakagami and Leon Camier).

The two factory teams were the only ones to come in under the 2'08 mark on the first day of the Suzuka Eight-Hours official tests. Kawasaki Team Green’s Kazuma Watanabe, Leon Haslam and Jonathan Rea posted the third-quickest time: a 2'08.045.

The ambitious Honda-mounted squad au.Teluru MotoUp RT proved quicker than Yoshimura Suzuki Motul Racing and another promising Suzuki squad: S-Pulse Dream Racing (Hideyuki Ogata, Tommy Bridewell and Kazuki Watanabe). YART Yamaha was the fastest of the full-season teams with a 2'09.043 lap. F.C.C. TSR Honda France posted a prudent 2’10.336 lap, ahead of GMT94 Yamaha (2'10.439) and Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (2'12.229).