Sunday May 19

24H Bol d'Or 2012

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Wednesday, 18 April 2012 00:00

  

 

Successful start into the FIM World Endurance Championship for the Monster Energy Yamaha -YART Team at the 76th edition of the Bol d'Or in Magny Cours (France).

The season opener of the Endurance World Championship at the Formula One race track of Magny Cours (France) was pretty exciting for the Monster Yamaha Austria Team. In the very first free practice session Steve Martin and Gwen Giabbani recorded three crashes. «It was not the fault of my boys. There were a lot of crashes at the same spot. Spillage from a broken engine caused all the incidents there», explained team manager Mandy Kainz.

In the race itself the Monster Energy Yamaha -YART was running comfortably in fourth position without any problems despite some difficulties in changing the rear tyre. Kainz: «The new quick-shifter system was not working properly. Therefore we were not able to fight for the victory because we lost too much time in the pits.»

But Igor Jerman, Steve Martin and Gwen Giabbani were not satisfied finishing outside the podium and started a remarkable chase in the last couple of hours. Only 20 minutes before the end of the 24 hour race Igor Jerman took third place from Yamaha France GMT94. «This is a great result for our team. I am pleased to get some safe points in the bag. Today the performance of Igor, Steve and Gwen was incredible», said Kainz.

The next round of the Endurance World Championship will be held on 9th of June in Qatar for the 8 hours of Doha (Qatar). «This track was always good for us. We won the race twice and finished in second position twice. So I am very confident», so Mandy Kainz.

Overall classification
1. SRC Kawasaki France (Kawasaki ZX10R), 781 laps
2. Suzuki Endurance (Suzuki GSX-R1000), 781 laps
3. Monster Energy Yamaha -YART (Yamaha YZF-R1), 776 laps
4. Yamaha France GMT94 (Yamaha YZF-R1), 776 laps
5. Yamalube Folch Endurance (Yamaha YZF-R1), 765 laps

Points (after one of five races)
1. SRC Kawasaki France (da Costa, Leblanc, Four), 35 points
2. Suzuki Endurance (Philippe, Delhalle, Foret), 28 points
3. Monster Energy Yamaha -YART
 (Martin, Giabbani, Jerman), 22 points
4. Yamaha France GMT94 (D. Checa, Foray, Lagrive), 18 points
5. Yamalube Folch Endurance (Ribalta, Dos Santos, Tizon), 15 points