Jack Miller finished second at the 2025 Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race in Japan on Sunday, behind the dominant Honda HRC team. Miller said he was disappointed to miss the chance to win, citing Yamaha’s inability to match Honda’s pace despite strong preparation and effort.
Zarco crossed the finish line first despite two safety-car periods, extending Takahashi’s record to seven wins at the event and marking Zarco’s second Suzuka 8 Hours victory, according to official race records. Honda’s factory team, running with just two riders and conducting seven pit stops, demonstrated efficiency and race control that left rivals chasing throughout the eight-hour endurance race.
Honda HRC secured its fourth consecutive victory at the 2025 Suzuka 8 Hours on Sunday, completing 217 laps with riders Johann Zarco and Takumi Takahashi.
Jack Miller, riding for the Yamaha Racing Team alongside Katsuyuki Nakasuga and Andrea Locatelli, finished second overall with an identical lap count but a slower race time of 8:01:00.823, official Yamaha data shows. Miller expressed clear disappointment after the race, stating he “couldn’t show our true potential” and was “disappointed not to get the win,” according to his post-race comments reported by Yamaha media. He acknowledged that despite a “good day” and a strong race effort, Yamaha “couldn’t catch our rivals” from Honda and emphasized that the team “needed to be faster” to mount a proper challenge in future Suzuka events.
Miller’s frustration was compounded by Yamaha’s qualifying performance, where the Yamaha R1 secured only the fifth-fastest time overall. Johann Zarco had claimed pole position with a lap of 2 minutes, 4.290 seconds, setting a new Suzuka 8 Hours lap record and beating Yamaha’s Andrea Locatelli by 0.026 seconds, according to qualifying session reports. Miller described qualifying as a “heavy challenge” and admitted to being “disappointed” with the result, which forced Yamaha to start the race at a relative disadvantage to Honda’s dominant pace.
The Yamaha Racing Team faced additional challenges during the event build-up. Miller suffered a high-profile crash in qualifying practice that sent his bike airborne, as widely reported and captured on video. Despite escaping injury, the crash disrupted Yamaha’s momentum and required the team to regroup quickly. Miller later noted that the Yamaha R1 initially felt “completely foreign” to him before the final pre-race test, highlighting the adaptation challenge from his usual MotoGP machinery. He indicated that while his pace improved as he adjusted, the early difficulties and the crash may have limited the team’s ability to fully display their potential against Honda’s well-established Suzuka package.
Throughout the race, Miller praised his team’s execution, noting they managed the event with “almost no mistakes” despite “hot and extremely difficult” conditions. However, he maintained that the performance gap to Honda was clear and that Yamaha must improve speed to convert strong performances into victories. Yamaha’s other factory-supported team, YART, retired from the race, making Miller’s runner-up finish the manufacturer’s primary result and increasing the emotional weight of narrowly missing the win.
Miller’s comments after the race reflected a mix of pride in the team’s effort and regret over the missed opportunity. He stated that second place was “good” but not the target he had set upon committing to the demanding endurance event. Looking ahead, Miller explicitly expressed his intention to return to the Suzuka 8 Hours next year with the goal of winning. He said the team must “improve and be faster” to challenge Honda properly and that he was motivated by the experience to refine both his performance and Yamaha’s race package.
The 2025 Suzuka 8 Hours, held at the Suzuka Circuit in Japan on June 29, remains a key round of the Endurance World Championship. Honda’s victory continued a dominant streak that began in 2022, while Yamaha’s near miss underscored the competitive gap that teams will seek to close in upcoming seasons. Miller’s participation came amid his ongoing MotoGP commitments, adding complexity to his adaptation to the endurance race format and machinery. Officials confirmed that the event featured 217 laps completed by both leading teams, with Honda finishing ahead by a narrow margin on elapsed time. The race also included two safety-car periods, which tested teams’ strategic execution under changing conditions.
