MotoGP grand prix winners Johann Zarco and Jack Miller were key figures in the final part of qualifying for the 2025 Suzuka 8 Hours, as Zarco delivered pole and a lap record for Honda.
Dubbed the 'Top 10 Trial', the Saturday session featured the 10 best crews on combined average times from Friday qualifying - although this time it was the best individual laptime for each entry that counted, with two riders from each bike getting a single lap each.
Miller, representing Yamaha at the event, had already gone under the lap record in practice earlier in the day, so looked a big threat for pole.
The #73 Honda was top of the rankings for a long spell thanks to the effort by Yuki Kunii, a Moto2 rookie this year, but Miller was nine tenths up on Kunii's lap after three sectors and on course to demolish the benchmark when he tipped into Suzuka's lap-concluding chicane.
He lost control of the bike on the change of direction, skidding sideways through the corner before having a highside - one slow enough to where Miller immediately got up and remounted to complete the lap 11 seconds off the pace.
Back in the pit garage, he watched nervously as team-mate Andrea Locatelli, Yamaha's lead World Superbike rider, fired in an impressive 2m04.316s - which Miller met with an emotional "Yes! Let's go!".
"I just changed directions a little bit quickly on the chicane," Miller explained afterwards. "She said no more.
"It was a perfect lap up until that point, I felt really comfortable, the bike is working really well. Unfortunately I made it hard for Andrea, not having a good lap in the bank - but he did a fantastic job."
But with Zarco in the #30 Honda still coming up, the LCR MotoGP rider - a defending winner of the race - was 0.150s up on Locatelli after three sectors and just held an advantage over the line despite seemingly locking the tyre into the chicane.
Zarco's 2m04.290s beat Locatelli's time by 0.026s and stands as the new pole record.
"We didn't need to have pressure because our work is in a different category [race pace] - but the pressure was coming," said Zarco.
"I didn't expect to have this low [2m]04[s]. I saw the Yamaha this morning in free practice improving the laptime a lot, I was a little bit worried, but when Jack didn't finish the lap, I kind of breathed. But then I saw the 2m04s of Loca..."
Naomichi Uramoto, the fastest rider in qualifying, put the #76 Suzuki third on the grid but was seven tenths back from Zarco and Locatelli.
Top 10 on the grid
1 #30 Honda (Takumi Takahashi/Johann Zarco)*
2 #21 Yamaha (Katsuyuki Nakasuga/Jack Miller/Andrea Locatelli)
3 #76 Suzukia (Naomichi Uramoto/Loris Baz/Davey Todd)
4 #73 Honda (Teppei Nagoe/Keito Abe/Yuki Kunii)
5 #37 BMW (Markus Reiterberger/Michael van der Mark/Steven Odendaal)
6 #7 Yamaha (Karel Hanika/Marvin Fritz/Jason O'Halloran)
7 #1 Suzuki (Gregg Black/Dan Linfoot/Cocoro Atsumi)
8 #3 Ducati (Ryo Mizuno/Marcel Schrotter/Leon Haslam)
9 #40 Honda (Satoru Iwata/Koki Suzuki/Takuma Kunimine)
10 #17 Honda (Kohta Nozane/Kohta Arakawa/Ryusei Yamanaka)
*#30 Honda down to two riders for the race due to injuries and logistical issues
Riders in bold set the team's best laptime in pole shootout
