First qualifying at the 24 Hours of Le Mans The SERT leads ahead of Yamaha GMT 94 and Kawasaki France After the two free practice sessions being dominated respectively by Team Kawasaki France and Yamaha GMT 94, the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team took the lead this evening by scoring the best lap times in the first qualifying session. The Suzuki 1, current World Champion, was the fastest with the average lap time of its three riders. Vincent Philippe, Matthieu Lagrive and Julien Da Costa took the lead with an average time of 1’38.781, ahead of the Yamaha GMT 94 in 1’39.005. However, when it comes to individual lap times, the best one was made by Sébastien Gimbert on the Yamaha GMT 94. Kawasaki France, with Gwen Giabbani, Erwan Nigon and Julian Mazuecos, is taking the third place on the starting grid, ahead of the SERT Suzuki number 2 of William Costes, Guillaume Dietrich and Barry Veneman. Those four teams are the only ones to lap under 1’40 at Le Mans. The best performance behind this quartet of official machines was made by Midi Pyrénées MV Agusta. Patrick Piot, Sébastien Scarnato and Josep Monge took the fifth place in 1’41.091. Close behind them are the first Superstock machine of Junior Team Suzuki, then the Yamaha Austria Racing Team and the Kawasaki of the Bolliger Team Switzerland. Endurance Moto 38 takes the eleventh place but its third rider, Swiss Hervé Gantner, never rode in Le Mans before. Phase One Endurance is only thirteen, due to the crash, without consequences, of Stéphane Duterne. Spanish rider Dani Ribalta was very fast at YMES Folch Endurance but his two team-mates are discovering the track; hence the Spanish Yamaha is sixteenth for now. The most disappointing results certainly comes from Honda National Motos. Engine and chassis problems gave some hard time to the Honda and the team could not do better than thirty-second on the grid. Maco Moto Racing Team is facing the same problems and have still to make decisions on some technical options. They are in thirty-seventh position. The 2007 qualifying lap times have already been beaten, but the Bugatti track underwent some changes last winter. The “Garage Vert” corner was made safer and the track length increased from 4180 to 4185 meters, but also made obviously faster. The first riders on the track had the benefit of a better weather, since it was drizzling towards the end of the session. The rain might perturb the night practice session tonight. Tomorrow, the second qualifying session will start at 11 am. More, from a press release issued by BMW Motorrad Motorsports: Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport steady in difficult conditions. The first qualifying session for this year’s Le Mans 24 hours took place in tricky conditions, so all BMW Motorrad Motorsport riders took things steadily rather then risk crashing. For most of qualifying the track was either wet or wet and dry and a dry line was hard to find. Belgian Stéphane Mertens celebrated his return to race action by posting the team’s fastest time, with Briton Richard Cooper close behind. Stéphane Mertens – 1:44.930 I feel much more comfortable on the bike now compared to when we tested here two weeks ago and now I am much more ready to race. I just needed to put in the laps to improve my feel and confidence with the bike and today has done that for me. Conditions were not all that good today and the qualifying was a bit wet. It was a bit strange because I could see the rain on my visor , but the track felt mostly OK. But I didn’t want to risk anything at this stage, so I took it fairly steady. I feel very happy at the moment and glad to be back racing. I am enjoying myself again and looking forward to the race. Richard Cooper – 1:44.984 The qualifying started just about OK, but then it deteriorated and ended with a fine drizzle which made life interesting on the track. Of our trio, I probably got the best conditions, but it didn’t last long. I took things fairly cautiously this afternoon because it would not have been too clever to push harder and crash. The forecast is for rain and that will be new territory for me as I have never ridden in the rain in the dark before! If it’s wet in the night practice, I will be putting on two sets of knee sliders. My legs are pretty small and our bike is a bit tall, so the only way I’ll be able to feel the wet track is by getting my knees down. Berti Hauser (Director of BMW Motorrad Motorsport) It has been a very difficult qualifying because of the mixed conditions. It was important to be safe for the grid and all our riders rode sensibly and used their heads. I am really surprised at Stéphane’s comeback. He did a qualifying time that surprised us – and maybe himself also! After missing last year, it’s good that he is able to get back into the groove so easily and already he is looking happy on the bike.