Suzuki Endurance Racing Team took the lead from the first hour of the race. Vincent Philippe, Matthieu Lagrive and Julien Da Costa, current World Champions on the Suzuki 1, are ahead the Kawasaki of Erwan Nigon, Ivan Silva and Julian Mazuecos at 7 pm. After a fantastic first shift, where Guillaume Dietrich took the lead, SERT Suzuki 2 is just behind the official Kawasaki and manage to resist to the Yamaha GMT 94. On the official Yamaha, Sébastien Gimbert, David Checa and Steve Plater lost a bit of time after a wrong tyre choice. But the Yamaha GMT 94 remains in ambush. “This is not yet the right time to push”, said Christophe Guyot, team-manager of the 94. One lap behind is the Yamaha Igol Acropolis Moto Expert, sticking to a great fifth place behind the favourites, and ahead the first Superstock machine, the Junior Team LMS. In seventh place, Yamaha Austria Racing Team is fighting hard to come back at the front. After a fantastic start from Gwen Giabbani, Steve Martin was involved in a collective crash with two other bikes. Then YART lost some time with a rear brake calliper problem. At 7 pm, YART was leading over Kawasaki Bolliger Switzerland and Suzuki Igol AM Moto Racing. Yamaha Folch Endurance made a great come back to the tenth place: the team had to start with their spare bike after their engine broke down during the warm-up, and they also had to face a stop and go penalty. Great come back as well for Phase One up to twelfth place, after being at the end of the pack from the first hour of the race. The British Yamaha, with Damian Cudlin, Grame Gowland and Jörg Teuchert, had to face problems with the front brake callipers. In thirteenth place, Qatar Endurance Racing Team is also second in the Superstock class, ahead of LTG 57. Endurance Moto 45 had problems to move from the starting grid. Starting then from the last position, the Suzuki 100 lost some ground with a problem from the fuel tank breather hose. At 7 pm, they were in twenty-seventh position. The race was short for some teams. In the start mayhem, the Ducati 1098R Endurance Racing Team 98 crashed at the end of the pit straight. Injured, rider Louis Bulle managed to bring back the bike into the pits but could not carry on racing. The Kawasaki Raffin Motos 16 and the bio-ethanol powered Thorn Bikes Honda also had to retire from the first hour, after their riders collided. Raffin Motos was too damaged to carry on and with four crashes this week-end, the team was short of spare parts. On the Thorn Bikes, rider Stéphane Lacaze was too injured to bring back the bike into the pits. The latest retirement is from Honda Education Racing Team Lycée Jacques Brel, after a over-heating problem. The rain just made an appearance over Magny-Cours and might perturb the established order.