24h Motos
This morning, the 59 teams that make up the grid of the Le Mans 24H Motos headed out on the 4.185-kilometre track for the second qualifying session before the race this weekend, and many teams bettered their times. The Team ERC – BMW Motorrad Endurance #6 BMW won pole position with 01:36.597, the second fastest time since 2011 when the prized spot began being determined with the average of the three riders’ best lap times.
Thanks to their group effort, the team get to lead the field for the 42nd start of the famous endurance race at 15:00 tomorrow. Kenny Foray, Julien Da Costa and Mathieu Gines got the better of British outfit Honda Endurance Racing, which topped the tables after the first qualifying session yesterday with the #111 Honda. “We gave ourselves a couple of laps to set some good times while we had our qualification tyres. The BMW/Pirelli combination works well on the Bugatti and we have both to thank for our performance today. We’re out to win. We believe we can and we’re going to take this bike all the way”, says Julien Da Costa, winner of the 24H Motos in 2010, 2011 and 2012 with Kawasaki.
The #7 Yamaha fielded by YART-Yamaha with riders Broc Parkes, Marvin Fritz and Niccolò Canepa banked the second-best time: 01:36.625. Another Yamaha, the #333 R1 run by VDR Igol Pierret Experiences, rounds off the top three, with an average of 01:36.708 set by Florian Alt, Florian Marino and Xavier Simeon.
Last year’s winners, Japanese team F.C.C. TSR Honda France, qualified the #1 Honda in seventh place.
In the Superstock category, last year’s Bol d’Or class winners Julian Puffe, Pepijn Bijsterbosch and Lucy Glöckner set the best time for GERT56 by GS YUASA on the #56 BMW (01:37.878). “My co-riders – the whole team – were faultless. Consistency in lap times and perfect execution of pit stops will be vital this weekend”, says Lucy Glöckner. Second and third in the hotly-disputed Superstock class: the Team 33 Coyote Louit Moto #33 Kawasaki and the Motors Events #50 Suzuki. IteM 17 riders Gabriel Pons, Matthieu Thibault and Alex Sarrabayrouse and their #17 Kawasaki took the advantage in the Experimental category. “We’re looking to win our class, but above all to finish the race. It would be a bonus to be in the top 20 overall”, says Matthieu Thibault.
Classification after qualifying
The warm-up session for the second round of the 2018-19 FIM Endurance World Championship is scheduled at 09:40-10:25 tomorrow, Saturday 20 April. President of the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), Jorge Viegas will officiate for the start of the Le Mans 24H Motos at 15:00.
See www.lemans.org for details of the 24H Motos.
