Second-place Andrea Locatelli of the YAMAHA RACING TEAM (Yamaha) was also lapping in the 2:07 range, but the gap between the race leader remained steady at over 40 seconds. Among the top Honda teams, SDG Team HARC-PRO. Honda (Teppei Nagoe, Yuki Kunii, Keito Abe) held third with Abe on the bike, followed by Team ATJ with docomo business (Satoru Iwata, Kouki Suzuki, Takuma Kunimine) in fifth with Kunimine, and Honda Asia-Dream Racing with Astemo (Nakarin Atiratphuvapat, Azroy Hakeem Anuar, Md Zaqhwan Bin Zaidi) in tenth, with Zaidi at the controls.

The top two teams continued to show exceptional pace, regularly lapping in the 2:07–2:08 range and steadily pulling away from the rest of the field, who were running consistently in the 2:10 range.

On lap 128, YAMAHA RACING TEAM switched from Locatelli to Jack Miller. Pit stops continued in quick succession, with Abe handing over to Nagoe for SDG Team HARC-PRO. Honda, and Kunimine giving the bike to Suzuki for Team ATJ with docomo business.

Takahashi came into the pits on lap 139, handing the bike back to Zarco, who rejoined the race still in the lead. Behind him, Miller held second, Nagoe was third, Cocoro Atsumi of YOSHIMURA SERT Motul (Suzuki) took fourth, and Suzuki was fifth.

Despite the air temperature still sitting at 33°C, slightly reduced sunlight helped lower the track temperature to 53°C. Zarco briefly dropped into the 2:11 range, allowing Miller—who was still lapping in the 2:07 range—to reduce the gap from over 40 seconds to just above 20. However, Zarco soon responded, improving his pace to the 2:09 range and eventually back into the 2:07 range to rebuild the lead.

On lap 146, Nagoe pitted and handed off to Kunii. At the same time, Atsumi moved up to third and Suzuki to fourth. Kunii, running in the 2:08 range, began closing in on Suzuki.

By lap 155, YAMAHA RACING TEAM made another rider change, switching from Miller to Katsuyuki Nakasuga. Meanwhile, Zarco laid down the race’s fastest lap at 2:06.895, extending the gap once again. Suzuki swapped with Iwata, and Kunii moved up into fourth.

By lap 160, only the YAMAHA RACING TEAM remained on the same lap as the leading Honda HRC machine. All other teams, including third place and lower, had fallen two laps behind.

At the 6-hour mark, Honda HRC completed 166 laps, 2 laps more than at the same point last year. With just two hours remaining, four Honda teams remained inside the top 10: Honda HRC in first, SDG Team HARC-PRO. Honda in fourth, Team ATJ with docomo business in fifth, and Honda Asia-Dream Racing with Astemo in tenth.