12 Hours of Portimao
FIM Endurance World Championship
Autodromo Internacional Algarve, Portimao, Portugal
June 10, 2016
Combined Overall Qualifying Results:
1. SRC Kawasaki (Gregory Leblanc 1:46.508/Matthieu Lagrive 1:45.992/Fabien Foret 1:46.271), Kaw ZX-10R, Superbike, 1:46.257
2. YART Yamaha Official EWC Team (Broc Parkes 1:45.921/Marvin Fritz 1:46.028/Ivan Silva 1:46.972), Yam YZF-R1, Superbike, 1:46.307
3. F.C.C. TSR Honda (Kazuma Watanabe 1:46.974/PJ Jacobsen 1:45.456/Damian Cudlin 1:46.819), Hon CBR1000RR SP, Superbike, 1:46.416
4. GMT94 Yamaha (David Checa 1:46.999/Niccolo Canepa 1:46.243/Lucas Mahias 1:46.384), Yam YZF-R1, Superbike, 1:46.542
5. Parkalgar Racing Team (Miguel Oliveira 1:45.157/Miguel Praia 1:48.437/Matthieu Lussiana 1:47.323), Yam YZF-R1, Superbike, 1:46.972
6. Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (Vincent Philippe 1:46.912/Anthony Delhalle 1:46.933/Etienne Masson 1:47.114), Suz GSX-R1000, Superbike, 1:46.986
7. Team 3ART Yam’Avenue (Louis Bulle 1:47.914/Alex Plancassagne 1:47.687/Lukas Trautmann 1:46.412), Yam YZF-R1, Superstock, 1:47.337
8. Team Bolliger Switzerland (Roman Stamm 1:47.119/Michael Savary 1:47.457/Gianluca Vizziello 1:48.106), Kaw ZX-10R, Superbike, 1:47.560
9. Team April Moto Motors Events (Gregg Black 1:46.328/Gregory Fastre 1:47.931/Alex Cudlin 1:48.438), Suz GSX-R1000, Superbike, 1:47.565
10. Maco Racing Team (Gregory Junod 1:47.490/Anthony Dos Santos 1:48.159/Marko Jerman 1:47.491), Yam YZF-R1, Superbike, 1:47.783
More, from a press release issued by Eurosport Events:
TEAM SRC KAWASAKI IN POLE POSITION AT PORTIMÃO
Team SRC Kawasaki narrowly beat the YART Yamaha Official EWC Team and F.C.C. TSR Honda to a pole position start at the 12 Horas de Portimão. The race will be flagged off in Portugal tomorrow morning.
Things are shaping up for a close battle on the challenging Portimão circuit. Most of the teams really upped their performance at the second qualifying session this morning. Six squads were neck and neck within the same second when it came to combined best times. In the end Team SRC Kawasaki were 50 thousandths of a second up on the YART Yamaha Official EWC Team (in the lead after the first qualifying). F.C.C. TSR Honda also clocked much faster times to place slightly ahead of GMT94 Yamaha.
Parkalgar Racing Team took fifth on the grid. Its star pilot Miguel Oliveira, the 2015 Moto3 world championship runner-up, came back with a bang this morning. Despite a spectacular crash yesterday, Oliveira recorded the fastest lap of the session: 1’45.157.
Suzuki Endurance Racing Team is in sixth place, having kept up a steady pace. Only one factory-backed team is missing from the roll call of leaders. Honda Endurance Racing were obviously still having set-up issues with the CBR1000RR on the Portimão track, and will start from 14th place.
In the Superstock class, Team 3Art Yam’Avenue consolidated its leadership by placing 7th, just behind the pack of favourites to win. Team Louit Moto 33 Traqueur and Yamaha Viltaïs Experiences are neck and neck in 11th and 12th place respectively, ahead of Junior Team Le Mans Sud Suzuki.
The first edition of the 12 Horas de Portimão will be flagged off at 9.30am local time (GMT+1) Saturday. The race is expected to finish at 9.30pm, just after nightfall. Follow the live action on Eurosport and Equipe 21, and on www.fimewc.com/live-timing
More, from a press release issued by Honda Endurance Racing:
Challenging qualifying for the Honda Endurance Racing team at Portimão
Portimão
Autodromo do Algarve, Portugal
The Honda Endurance Racing team will start tomorrow’s 12-hour EWC race at Portimão’s Autodromo do Algarve from 14th position, after a challenging second qualifying session around the spectacular 4.592km circuit located on the south western edge of Portugal.
After finishing ninth in yesterday’s first qualifying, this morning’s session began with a setback as Julien Da Costa had a small crash at turn 5 during his first flying lap. The Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP suffered no damage and the 34-year-old endurance specialist was able to make his way back to the pits; the team performed a quick check for further damage, before the Frenchman was able to get back on track. Due to the time lost, Da Costa was unable to finish higher than 16th.
It was then Sébastien Gimbert’s time to get out on track for his 20 minutes of qualifying: the former French Superbike Champion was running in twelfth place and improving lap by lap, before a red flag with four minutes to go broke his momentum.
Freddy Foray was the last of the Honda Endurance Racing trio to get on track: the 31-year-old from Sèvres pushed his Fireblade machine into the top 10 by setting his fastest lap of qualifying in 1’47.952.
With the overall average time calculated by using each rider’s quickest lap time in qualifying, it means the Honda Endurance Team will start tomorrow’s 12-hour race – which is scheduled to begin at 9:30 local time (GMT +1) – from 14th place.
Freddy Foray 111
It looks like we lost a bit of direction today; we weren’t able to keep improving and put together a competitive lap-time. We tried different things on the bike, which unfortunately didn’t work out the way we wanted. The team worked really hard but so far it hasn’t paid off. Tomorrow will be a completely different scenario but we need to find something in warm up that can allow us to make that step forward we need. We’re not where we’d like to be but I’m confident we can still turn things around.
Sébastien Gimbert 111
This is obviously not the result we were hoping for. For some reason we haven’t been able so far to put together the right set-up to be fast over a single lap. The team is evaluating some changes for tomorrow that we will try during the warm up to see if we can improve a little. We’re not losing hope and we’re quite sure that the race will be a whole lot different, so what matters now is to stay focused. Portimão is a very demanding track and, first of all, we need to be perfectly comfortable on the bike, otherwise the race can turn into a very long one.
Julien Da Costa 111
This was a difficult day for us: it was nothing major with the bike, we were simply unable to be quick over a single lap. There’s still a lot of work to do ahead of the race but I think we are in a better position than our qualifying would suggest. We need to stay relaxed and keep or focus on the whole length of the race as this is where we can really make a difference.
Jonny Twelvetrees
Assistant team manager
We didn’t get as high in position as we would have hoped today in qualifying; we are still looking for a quick lap time which, unfortunately, didn’t come to us. This is of course a little disappointing. On the bright side, our overall average lap-time – taken from every single lap completed by our riders – shows that our pace is good and very consistent and we hope this will count tomorrow. The goal is to climb up the order and get back to the sharp end of the field.
More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki Press Office:
SUZUKI RACE-READY FOR PORTIMAO 12-HOUR ENDURANCE
Jun 10th, 2016
Suzuki Endurance Racing Team will start tomorrow’s second round of the Endurance World Championship from sixth on the grid after shaving almost a second off earlier lap-times in today final qualifying sessions at the Autodromo International do Algarve in Portugal.
Vincent Philippe, who was struggling with sickness yesterday that affected his performance aboard the Yoshimura-powered GSX-R1000, was back to full fitness today and put in the fastest lap of the three SERT riders this afternoon with a time of 1:46.912 around the 4.592 km circuit, with Anthony Delhalle posting a best of 1:46.933, following a small crash towards the end of his session that bruised his right hand. Etienne Masson scored a 1:47.114 to put the 14-time World Champions’ average at 1:46.986.
At the end of qualifying, Dominique Méliand’s team are all set and satisfied with the GSX-R1000’s suspension and overall set-up, which will prove vital during the gruelling race on the bumpy and challenging circuit.
With less-than a second separating the top-six teams, Team April Moto Motors Events Suzuki riders Gregg Black, Gregory Fastre and Alex Cudlin posted the eighth-quickest time of 1:47.565 and the Superstock Class Junior Team LMS Suzuki fourth in class and 13th overall on the grid with a time of 1:48.017. The team, which is based at the same Le Mans headquarters in France as SERT, comprises Baptiste Guittet, Romain Maitre and Robin Camus; a leading force and one of the favourites for SST victory in 2016.
After initial qualifying, SERT Team Manager Dominique Mé¬liand commented: “It’s a bumpy circuit and you’ve got to be on top form to ride it well. But even with Vincent feeing under the weather earlier, we were still definitely in the running – all the more so because we were using racing tyres, while others, who clocked faster lap-times, were using qualifying tyres. On Saturday, we’ll all be on an equal footing for the race!”
The first edition of the 12 Horas de Portimão will be flagged-off at 9:30hrs local time tomorrow. The race will be broadcast on Eurosport and Equipe 21 television channels, along with Eurosport’s internet-based Player. Live Timing is also available on www.fimewc.com/live-timing along with FIM Social Media channels.