Suzuka 8 Hours qualifying: Delbianco the fastest Yamaha, ahead of Locatelli and Miller!

Friday, 03 July 2026 at 13:07

Stunning performance by Alessandro Delbianco in official qualifying for the Suzuka 8 Hours, the third round of the Endurance World Championship. The reigning Italian Superbike champion lapped in 2'04"712, the third-fastest time of the day overall. Delbianco was the best Yamaha rider, quicker even than factory men Roberto Locatelli and Jack Miller.

The starting grid for the legendary endurance race is determined by a complicated calculation, namely the average of the two best riders’ performances from each team. Below, however, we offer a figure that in endurance is purely theoretical: the outright best laps. It’s an evocative, non-technical metric, because in this competition the team wins, not the individual, and a thousand different factors come into play compared to pure sprint racing. Still, it gives us interesting clues.

Jonathan Rea, what a rider!

The best of the bunch, unsurprisingly, was Jonathan Rea, 2'04"422. He may be a former full-time racer, no longer in the weekly fray, but around the traps of Suzuka he still has plenty to say, and how. On equal Honda CBR-RR machinery he put six tenths on Takumi Takahashi, who has already won the 8 Hours seven times. In the recent past Honda HRC made the difference with reduced fuel consumption, but if they need to get tough—keeping a GP-like pace from start to finish—there’ll be no shortage of talent. There is, however, the Somkiat Chantra question mark, with a decidedly milder rhythm: will Honda HRC run with two or three riders?

Delbianco unleashed

In the video below, Ale’s first words just after the big celebration erupted in the Yamaha Marc VDS/KM99 garage on his return from that sensational lap. At the 8 Hours, a do-or-die flyer counts little for the final result, but for a rider who’s never really had the true chance to showcase his talent on the world stage, this is a massive satisfaction. Locatelli was two tenths slower—so to speak—since the Bergamasque also broke the 2'05" barrier. Jack Miller struggled more, ending up six tenths down on Delbianco. BMW Motorrad was blisteringly quick with Michael van der Mark, who has always gone brilliantly at Suzuka. The Dutchman boasts four wins here: two with Honda, two with Yamaha Factory, the last in 2018.