Suzuka 8 Hours: Yamaha takes back-to-back poles

In the early part of the session, Josh Waters was the first rider to set a competitive lap time, clocking a 2m09.968s astride his Suzuki GSX-R1000.

Yukio Kagayama (Team Kagayama) immediately lowered it by more than a second before World Supersport frontrunner PJ Jacobsen went even quicker with a time of 2m07.248s.

The F.C.C. TSR Honda rider’s benchmark remained unbeaten until Nakasuga came out 40 minutes into the session, going one second quicker with 2m06.258s.

Despite several efforts from the Yoshimura Suzuki and Team Green Kawasaki outfits, the Japanese rider's time was not beaten - delivering Yamaha’s second pole position in a row at Suzuka 8 Hours.

Behind, WSBK rider Josh Brookes qualified the Yoshimura Suzuki team in second place, two tenths shy of Nakasuga, with Team Green Kawasaki’s Kazuki Watanabe a further 0.064s adrift in third.

Jacobsen’s earlier time proved to be good enough for fourth place ahead of Nicky Hayden, who put the Musashi RT Harc Pro Honda machine in the middle of the second row.

Team Kagayama qualified sixth with YART Yamaha, Toho Racing and Moto Map Supply filling up the third row of the grid.

TeamJP Dogfightracing completed the top 10, the last of the bikes to qualify for the top 10 shootout.