More, from a press release issued by Honda:

Honda Endurance Racing finish 8 Hours of Oschersleben with heads held high after heroic team effort

8 Hours of Oschersleben

Motorsport Arena Oschersleben, Germany

The Honda Endurance Racing squad dug deep throughout today’s 8 Hours of Oschersleben, but the whole team’s resolve, grit and determination was really tested when, just 21 minutes from the chequered flag, Gregory Leblanc suffered a huge crash whilst pushing for fourth.

With just seconds separating the #111 Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2 from fourth position in the final half an hour, Gregory, who had already completed a mammoth 131 laps, was pushing hard. In the first two laps of his final stint he closed the gap by two seconds until his crash at the very fast Bauer right hander.

Emerging fortunately unhurt, he managed to limp the machine back to the pits and the team set to work at a furious pace. They changed the front end, tank, radiator, fairings and a whole lot more in just 12 minutes, enabling Erwan to retake control for the final nine minutes, ensuring Honda Endurance Racing succeeded in finishing this gruelling test of man and machine which indeed proved very testing.

Honda Endurance Racing will be back in action again at the final round of the FIM Endurance World Championship season in Suzuka, Japan, on 27-29 July.

Jonny Twelvetrees

Team Manager

That was really a remarkable achievement from the team to dig deep, at the end of an already challenging 8 hour endurance race, to absolutely work their magic to repair the bike in incredible time and ensure we could take the chequered flag. It’s this never-give-up attitude which defines endurance racing and the team, and I’m so proud of the whole team in the determination and professionalism they demonstrated today. Even though of course the result isn’t what we wanted, and what we were capable of on the Fireblace, we can hold our heads high that we didn’t give up and kept pushing to the maximum right until the end – you can see that too with the focus Greg had on attacking for fourth position. Sebastien struggled with his knee today so Greg and Erwan stepped in and delivered 131 and 132 laps respectively which in itself is also a huge achievement, so we leave Oschersleben not satisfied results-wise but absolutely proud of our team spirit.

Erwan Nigon 111

I can’t find the words for today – it’s been tough but sometimes racing happens like this. We had good pace and fourth was possible because we all pushed hard to climb from seventh at the start and never gave up. At the end of course the crash with Greg was a big shame but I’m glad he’s ok, and the team did a fantastic job to allow us to finish the race. It wasn’t in the position we wanted, but after the crash it was an achievement to give us something to take the chequered flag on.

Gregory LeBlanc 111

I’m just so sorry for the whole team for the crash at the end – I came out in my last session and in my first two laps I made up two seconds and was fastest on track, and I could see that fourth was possible. Before I went out we had the target of fourth so that’s what I wanted, but then going into Bauer I just touched the brake and lost the front. It wasn’t easy today with the extra laps but we were still fast and could see that we had front-runner pace. Normally we should have finished 4th or 5th which would have been ok given the circumstances, but of course not if you look at the results sheets so it’s disappointing.

Sébastien Gimbert 111

For me it’s been a very hard and frustrating weekend – I’ve never been in this situation before where I can’t equal my teammates in their laps and laptimes because of my knee, but the pain after my first session was just too much. I either risked crashing or making the injury worse which I didn’t want to do before Suzuka. I’m glad Greg is ok after his crash – I understand his position as we had the chance for fourth so he absolutely had to push, and I know it’s not been so easy on he and Erwan today with having to do more laps each, but it’s in these situations where team spirit really shows and I’m thankful to them and the team.

More, from a press release issued by Yamaha:

GMT94 Yamaha Fight to the End for Oschersleben Podium

The GMT94 Yamaha Official EWC Team and YART Yamaha Official EWC Team endured a drama filled 8 Hours of Oschersleben yesterday in the penultimate round of the 2017/18 Endurance World Championship. GMT94 held on to take a valuable third place on the podium, whilst YART were not so lucky, recording a DNF.

Oschersleben pole-sitters David Checa, Mike Di Meglio and Niccolò Canepa of GMT94 were quick off the start and showing immediate race winning pace until the first challenge of the race struck. In a repeat of last year, they were imposed a stop-and-go penalty for failing to turn their lights off during their pit-stop, ultimately shaving off their margin required to win the race. Undeterred they kept on pushing. Two safety car moments then provided further drama, the first bringing the rival race winners in striking distance of their goal, the second in the last moments of the race, bringing Kawasaki right in to a duel for third in the last lap. With just half a lap to go, Mike Di Meglio fell in the heat of the moment, but was able to get back on his damaged R1 and ride it across the line to secure the podium.

Slovakia Ring race winners YART Yamaha EWC arrived in Oschersleben determined to continue their race winning form make up for the less than perfect race experience of last year. With much improved tyre choices riders Broc Parkes, Marvin Fritz and Max Neukirchner were confident of striking out for the podium. Unfortunately for the team luck was not theirs, and again they were face with big challenges. An overheating radiator with subsequent water leak caused Marvin to crash on the slippery liquid, the impact of the crash then causing the YZF-R1 to catch fire on a section of track where no fire extinguisher was immediately available. In true Endurance style Fritz was still able to get his R1 back to the garage where the team spent some considerable time working to return the machine to a race ready state. Ultimately the battle was lost and Team Director Mandy Kainz made the decision to stop, keeping the safety of the riders foremost in his mind.

The Oschersleben results mean GMT94 remain in second place in the Championship standings heading to the final round in Suzuka on 29th July, ten points behind their rivals.

David Checa

GMT94 Yamaha Official EWC Team

“I’m really proud of the team after this race, we worked really hard to get to the podium here in Oschersleben. As always in Endurance racing, anything can happen, and today many things did! We had safety cars that made it difficult to have a distance to our rivals, the first made it almost impossible to win and the second also meant we would have to fight. In the end we were lucky to finish on the podium, both Mike and Niccolò did a great job and the team worked had all weekend so we do deserve this. Now we go to Suzuka to fight again.”

Christophe Guyot

GMT94 Yamaha Official EWC Team

“Of course we made a little mistake, and had a penalty with the stop and go as a result. The first safety car allowed Honda to save one pit-stop and the second allowed Kawasaki to be just with us. So there was a big fight between Randy de Puniet and Mike, Mike crashed; this is racing. Fortunately he was able to cross the line so we are on the podium. The bike worked very well, the pace was very good and the team performed perfectly. The Dunlop tyres worked really well in the hot temperatures, they made a big step. We are lucky because the bike had big damage but Mike was able to make the half lap and cross the line at the end so we can be very happy. Now we are looking forward to Suzuka we are ready to fight, we never give up and we will see what is possible. A big thank you to David, Mike and Niccolò for their efforts and the whole team for their hard work.”

Broc Parkes

YART Yamaha Official EWC Team

“We were in a good position and at the front the race at the beginning, then obviously things went the wrong way. I’m really upset, it was difficult to win but the podium was possible and definitely there for us, I think we could have been second. The problems we had were totally out of our control so it’s frustrating for us to finish like this. I’m looking forward to doing a good job in Suzuka, thank you to all the team and Marvin and Max for everyone’s hard work this weekend.”

Mandy Kainz

YART Yamaha Official EWC Team Manager

“The bike started to overheat, it was more or less the same story as two years ago. When Max was riding and the water came out of the radiator. When Marvin was riding the water came out and he crashed on it, then the bike caught on fire. Unfortunately there was no fire extinguisher on the corner he crashed so the bike was also on fire for a while. After these incidents we tried to get going again, but made the decision to stop for safety. I want to thank the team and the riders for all their hard work over this weekend, today it wasn’t meant to be, but we start looking to Suzuka now to be ready for the next challenge.”

More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki Press Office:

SERT FIGHTS BACK FROM CRASH AS SUZUKI GSX-R1000 PODIUMS

SERT – EWC Class – 10th

Junior Team LMS – SST Class – 2nd

No limits Suzuki – SST Class – 4th

Suzuki Endurance Racing Team fought back from a heavy crash to take 10th place at the Oschersleben 8 Hour Endurance World Championship fourth round in Germany as Junior Team LMS Suzuki raced to second in the Superstock FIM World Cup.

The 15 times champions were in a dominant position aboard their #2 GSX-R1000 in the early stages: Gregg Black started by leading the race and pushed hard until the end of his stint, but when then the team’s most decorated and longest-serving rider Vincent Philippe made a mistake and crashed heavily. Despite the work of the technical team to repair the SERT bike quickly, they went back out on track in 31st position and almost nine laps behind the leaders.

Philippe, Etienne Masson and Black dug deep and put in some consistently fast laps as they fought through the pack, regularly scoring some of the best lap-times of the race, taking 10th at the chequered flag.

Team Manager Dominique Méliand was clearly disappointed, but also found some positive points regarding the race He said: “The negative point is Vincent’s crash that ruined any possibility to finish at least on the podium. The positive point is that we improved in our development with the GSX-R1000. We found some solutions and frankly speaking, here, our bike was more than good. If we check the time-sheets, we are not far from pole position in almost all laps! So, I’m disappointed by the result but very satisfied if we talk about the mechanical points.”

Among the Suzuki mounted-teams, Junior Team Le Mans Sud Suzuki finished on the second step of the podium in the Superstock class (seventh overall at the general ranking). This result allowed them to score second place at the 2017-2018 FIM World Cup. Also, the No Limits Motor Team finished in fourth place in the class (ninth at the general ranking) and also fourth in the Championship.