FIM Endurance World Championship/Oschersleben 8 Hours

Oschersleben, Germany

August 22, 2015

Overall Race Results:

1. GMT94 Yamaha (David Checa/Kenny Foray/Mathieu Gines), Yam YZF-R1, 8:01:09.771, 312 laps

2. Suzuki Endurance Racing Team SERT (Vincent Philippe/Anthony Delhalle/Etienne Masson), Suz GSX-R1000, 312 laps, -18.773 seconds

3. Monster Energy Yamaha – YART (Broc Parkes/Ivan Silva/Sheridan Morais), Yam YZF-R1, 309 laps

4. Junior Team LMS Suzuki (Baptiste Guittet/Gregg Black/Romain Maitre), Suz GSX-R1000, 308 laps

5. Honda Racing (Julien Da Costa/Sebastien Gimbert/Freddy Foray) Hon CBR1000RR SP, 306 laps

6. BMW Motorrad France Team Penz13.com (Markus Reiterberger/Bastien Mackels/Pedro Valcaneras), BMW S1000RR, 306 laps, -2.487 seconds

7. STARTEAM PAM-RACING (Kevin Longearet/Jonathan Hardt/Claude Lucas), Suz GSX-R1000, 305 laps

8. Maco Racing Team (Ginaluca Vizziello/Marko Jerman/Anthony Dos Santos), Yam YZF-R1, 305 laps, -9.168 seconds

9. National Motos (Sebastien Suchet/Greg Junod/Louis Bulle), Hon CBR1000RR, 304 laps

10. Team Traqueur Louit Moto33 (Julien Pilot/Emeric Jonchiere/Morgan Berchet), Kaw ZX-10R, 304 laps, -27.159 seconds

More, from a press release issued by Honda Endurance Racing:

Top-five finish for Honda Endurance Racing at Oschersleben

The Honda Endurance Racing team finished the Oschersleben 8 Hours this evening in the top-five, after placing the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP fifth at the 3.667km Oschersleben circuit in Germany.

After completing 306-laps and after eight hours of racing, Honda’s endurance specialists Julien Da Costa, Freddy Foray and Sébastien Gimbert crossed finish line in fifth position with a six-lap gap.

The race got underway at 12:00am (GMT+1) on Saturday with Gimbert, starting the race from fifth position. During the first hours, the Honda Endurance Racing team was fighting between first and third place, but the race pace was really strong and during the third hour, Da Costa ran out of fuel before entering the pits.

Quickly back on track in 18th position aboard the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP, Honda’s endurance specialists Da Costa, Foray and Gimbert pushed hard and made up positions. But while the team was back up to sixth place, Da Costa crashed out. The team worked hard to get the bike out on track only four minutes after the crash with two and a half hours to go.

Despite these issues, the squad did not lose their race pace and continued to make up positions. They eventually crossed the finish line fifth, collecting 18 valuable championship points.

The next and last Endurance World Championship round is the 24-hour Bol d’Or race, which takes place on 19-20 September, in France.

For all the latest news on the team in real time follow @HondaRacingCBR on Twitter.

Neil Tuxworth

It was a very eventful race for us, we made one or two mistakes, then Julien had a crash but these sort of things can happen, that’s racing. Eventually at the end of the day I think the team did very well to come back and finish in fifth position, so we have to take some positive.

Steven Casaer

The strategy was good, but obviously in the second stint the light didn’t come on and that has cost us dearly. The crash is something that happens, but the positive thing in the end is that all our riders were all pretty fast, they were all in the same pace and as fast as the other permanent teams. We take the lessons and we’ll analyse everything that happened to get well prepared for the Bol d’Or.

Julien Da Costa

I still don’t know why I crashed out during the race, but I think we are lucky to make a top-five finish after what we’ve been through during this eventful race. During the last stint I pushed hard and battled against the BMW to secure fifth place. The other good thing is that the issues we had were little mistakes, but the CBR is really reliable, so this is encouraging. We had a few chattering issues that we have to solve before the Bol d’Or, so this is something we’ll work on at the pre-Bol d’Or test in September, the race is over but we’re already on to the next one.

Freddy Foray

We finished fifth which is a good place, obviously we are a bit disappointed because we were aiming for victory here, but you always learn from your mistakes so now we’re moving forward and focusing on the Bol d’Or where we want to perform well and fight for victory.

Julien Da Costa

We still had chattering issues during the race, but the pre-Bol d’Or test should help us improve and confirm some points. The good point is that we were able to demonstrate that we are efficient as riders – we gave ourselves fully and were able to make really good lap times with Julien and Freddy. What we have to retain is the motivation and the energy that we expend on the bike in spite of the little issues that we can have. There’s one certain thing: we’re more united than ever.

More, from a press release issued by BMW Motorrad France Team Penz13.com:

 BMW Motorrad France Team Penz13.com powers to Oschersleben 8 hours sixth place finish

Oschersleben, Germany. BMW Motorrad France Team Penz13.com has brought home a sixth place finish at the third round of the 2015 Endurance World Championship held with the 8 hours of Germany today, Saturday. Markus Reiterberger (GER), Bastien Mackels (BEL) and Pedro Vallcaneras (ESP) also finished fifth in their class. It could well have been a podium for the BMW S 1000 RR powered squad but with 40 minutes to go for the finish line the team had to stop for changing the clutch.

Reiterberger made the headlines of the first hour when he took the lead at the start and pulled away by almost ten seconds of the rest of the field.

Reiterberger posted the fastest lap of the race during his second stint in 1:26,816 Minutes.

The team was long time battling for the lead but lost contention at a scheduled pit stop during a safety car phase. Still the squad was battling for the podium and was well placed on third overall when Reiterberger came back in telling his team mate Mackels that there was a problem with the clutch. Mackels went out on track but had to come back in after a couple of laps.

The clutch was changed in less then five minutes keeping the squad in contention for a fifth place but the team then couldn’t hold on to the pace of Honda Racing and dropped to sixth on the final laps of the race.

The team now heads on to the final race of the year with the Le Castellet returning legendary Bol d’Or on the weekend of the 19th and 20th September.

Markus Reiterberger

Rider

“I am quite satisfied with the fact that we were doing a good race, with all three riders doing fast lap times and the pit crew working mega with all the stops. In the end it just was up to bad luck again, which of course is annoying, but you have to take it. I had a lot of fun out there riding the bike. In the end this is a World Championship and the race is over 8 hours – for sure the podium would have been possible and it would have been a great reward for the team and this is what we will be aiming for in the future.”

Bastien Mackels

Rider

“I am a bit disappointed today as I am not satisfied with my pace during my stints. I was making myself too much pressure as I didn’t want to crash the bike as I did at Suzuka. That basically was my problem today. Of course the clutch problem caused us the loss of the podium in the end which is disappointing as well but we are constantly improving, came home better than at Le Mans. It’s the first year in that category and we need to learn a lot and need to keep on improving. Next thing is the Pre-Bol d’Or test and then the final 24 hours race and that’s all we focus on now.”

Pedro Vallcaneras

Rider

“We were unlucky today in the end – with the clutch problem occurring 40 minutes before the end of the race. The team did an awesome job by changing it in shortly above five minutes which actually is unbelievable considering how hot the engine, oil and everything was after more than seven hours racing. But that’s the Endurance for you sometimes. It’s a pity but we still brought the bike home in sixth place.”

Rico Penzkofer

Team Principal

“We need to summarize this race with mixed feelings. We had highs again by leading and battling for the win and the podium and posting the fastest lap of the race. We improved our performance in the pit box and on track and were running a good strategy. But at the end we had bad luck twice: We had to do a scheduled pit stop during a safety car and couldn’t have worked faster in the pits but missed the green light for just fractions of a second. That’s something you can’t control, if the safety car and the need for a pit stop is there, you have to come in. We were back on track on a good pace again, aiming for the podium, but at the end we had the problem with the clutch – just 40 minutes away from the finish of the race and that threw us back again. In the end I was happy with how my riders rode and how the team was working in the pits as we did not do a single mistake today – it was just bad luck and this in two times: the safety car pit stop and the clutch. But eve this last part we managed in a record time. We need to take the positives and re-focus ourselves for the 24 hours of the Bol d’Or now. After the race is before the race.”