Suzuki Endurance Racing Team confirms his domination and took pole position for the 8 Hours of Doha, last round of the 2008 Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship. Pairing with Julien Da Costa and Guillaume Dietrich, Matthieu Lagrive even took the luxury to improve his best lap. Matthieu was the only rider to lap below the 2:02 mark, which is similar to the best World Superbike times on the Losail racetrack. Yamaha Austria Racing Team is back to the second place on the starting grid. Igor Jerman improved significantly his best lap times this morning and makes with Steve Martin and Steve Plater a very homogenous team in 2:03. YART is then slightly ahead of Kawasaki Bolliger Switzerland of David Morillon, Patric Muff and Horst Saiger and the Yamaha YMES Folch Endurance ridden by Dani Ribalta and Pedro Vallcaneras. Behind them are two others Yamaha on the starting grid, the British of Phase One Endurance with Scott Smart, Glen Richards and Damian Cudlin, and the Slovakian of Maco Moto Racing with Jason Pridmore, Thomas Hinterreiter and Jakub Smrz. Maco Moto Racing is facing some bad luck since they arrived in Doha, with two crashes and one engine breakdown. Jason Pridmore had a small crash yesterday but Thomas Hinterreiter came back to the pits this morning with a seriously damaged bike after his crash during the qualifying session. With the support of two riders from the British Superbike, Andrews Simon and Gary Mason, Diablo 666 Bolliger took a fantastic seventh place with permanent rider James Hutchins. Qatar Endurance Racing Team IJT remains the best team in the Superstock class. Mashel Al Naimi, Rashid Al Mannai and Anthony Delhalle, who already took the 2008 FIM Superstock World Cup, want to make the Qatari colors shine on the home track, at Losail. During the race, they’ll just have to stay away from Michael Lalevée, Gregory Leblanc and Cyril Huvier on the Yamaha LTG 57, as the French team will be just behind them on the starting grid. A little bit further, the third Superstock machine is the Suzuki Endurance Moto 45 with Nicolas Jaulneau, Alexandre Lagrive and Emmanuel Parisse. In the top-15 on this starting grid are also the La Fortezza X-One, RT Racing & Moto Virus, Endurance Moto 38 still struggling with their suspension set-up, RMT 21, the only Honda there, and the Team 18 Sapeurs Pompiers with Stéphane Molinier, Michael Savary and a Qatari rider, Abdulrahman Al Malki. The start of the 8 Hours of Doha will take place tomorrow Saturday at 1 pm. More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki Press Office: Recently-crowned World Endurance Champions Suzuki Endurance Racing Team is on pole for tomorrow’s final round of the Qtel FIM 2008 World Endurance Championship in Qatar. Team Riders Mathieu Lagrive, Julien Da Costa – and SERT 2 rider Guillaume Dietrich, who was drafted into the squad for this race – topped the timesheets with a combined lap time of 2:02.725. Lagrive was the only rider to lap below the 2:02 mark, similar to times set by WSBK riders at the circuit. Yamaha Austria Racing Team will start in second place on the starting grid ahead of Bolliger Team Switzerland. The start of the 8 Hours of Doha will take place on Saturday at 1pm. Qatar World Endurance Qualifying: 1 SERT (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 2:02.725, 2 Yamaha Austria Racing 2:03.368, 3 Bolliger Team Switzerland 2:03.563, 4 Yamaha Folch Endurance 2:03.752, 5 Phase One Endurance 2:04.014, 6 Maco Moto Racing 2:04.361, 7 Diablo 666 Bolliger 2:04.965, 8 QERT 2:05.171, 9 Team LGT 57 2:05.614, 10 La Fortezza Amadeus Xone 2:05.857.
Suzuki Endurance Racing Team On Pole Position For 8 Hours Of Doha
Suzuki Endurance Racing Team On Pole Position For 8 Hours Of Doha
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