2025 FIM EWC Round 2 — 8 Hours of Spa | Private Test Report (June 5)
An opening day tossed around all day by Spa’s notoriously unstable weather. Crashes and trouble limited the running, but the team — pole-sitters here last year — pressed on with preparations for qualifying.
Team Étoile’s second round of its second EWC season. After loading in on Tuesday and scrutineering on Wednesday, running began on Thursday. Last year the team used Tuesday’s track day to gain experience, but this time there are only three days of running — Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Thursday had two sessions — 2 hours 55 minutes in the morning and 4 hours 55 minutes in the afternoon — so the plan was to use the time fully to progress the bike’s setup and to let Motoharu Ito deepen his familiarity with Spa-Francorchamps for the first time.
We knew the forecast was poor, but it became a day at the mercy of ‘Spa weather’: the area’s characteristic conditions, with light rain and cloud alternating perhaps ten times. As soon as you fitted rain tyres the track would dry and wear them heavily — a neither-here-nor-there condition — and with several red flags we couldn’t build up running distance.
On top of that, crashes for Motoharu Ito and Hikari Okubo and machine trouble made for a day with poor momentum, but the mechanics and riders used it instead to push their preparations for qualifying.
Not being able to fine-tune the setup is the same for our rivals, so we’ll attack qualifying at Spa — where we took pole last year — with real determination. Friday has FP3 in the morning and qualifying 1 and 2 in the afternoon. The weather isn’t perfect, but the track looks set to trend toward dry.
Rider & team principal comments
Rider
Motoharu Ito
“It started in the wet, but I didn’t feel that much fear — the course is simply amazing and I love it. Maybe it’s because I enjoyed the atmosphere when I walked it yesterday, but each corner felt familiar, and my experience riding in Japan paid off. The old-tarmac section in particular reminded me of Okegawa Sports Land, where I ride a lot, so it felt very familiar.”
“The first run in the afternoon was in light rain but almost dry conditions. I came up 0.6 sec short of my target time, but I got to a point where I can picture what I need to do toward it. I also crashed by getting onto a white line — a pointless crash — so I want to reflect on that. Tonight I’ll picture it all carefully and work on recovery so I can set a personal best in tomorrow’s qualifying if it’s dry.”
Rider
Hikari Okubo
“The weather was unstable and it was a very difficult first day, but I think I did everything I could. Still, there’s a lot we couldn’t complete and I feel there are many concerns. In the end there was bike trouble and I had a big crash, but I want to take it positively that everyone finished day one without injury.”
“It wasn’t a good start to the race week and the team’s momentum isn’t great, which is something I need to reflect on too. Tomorrow is another day, so I’ll refocus for qualifying — I always tell myself that losing today doesn’t mean losing tomorrow — and I hope to keep pushing positively.”
Rider
Kazuki Watanabe
“Honestly, we haven’t been able to run properly. We couldn’t run in proper rain, and we only managed the last four laps or so in the dry, just enough to grasp where we stand. In the confusion, I think the team had a real sense of the challenge of what strategy to build, so that was a good part of it.”
“There were a lot of crashes and problems today, so we’ve put a burden on the mechanics. I’m being shown the harshness of endurance racing right in front of me, and each thing should be good experience — having gained confidence from finishing the brutal Le Mans, I feel a big wall is coming again, which tells me the team is growing.”
“I want to build toward the maximum 35 points the team is targeting, doing everything we can right now. Today the situation was too unstable to even know our rivals’ condition, so we’ll stay sharp from tomorrow so as not to be caught out.”
Team Principal
Takashi Ichikawa
“Today was a day that didn’t go as we’d hoped. There were crashes, which may have caused some worry. But all the riders are safe. The mechanics worked desperately to recover.”
“On the difficult Spa circuit, the team is trying to overcome it as one. The real battle starts here. Fans, please continue to support Team Étoile.”
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