Kawasaki win Le Mans 24 hour

KAWASAKI were victorious in what was to be an exciting 34th edition of the Le Mans 24.

The Kawasaki SRC team of Julien Da Costa, Grégory Leblanc and Olivier Four, lead from the start as Da Costa was able to get the jump into the first corner. During the opening stages of the endurance race the no.11 Kawasaki was closely followed by the factory BMW team of Sébastien Gimbert, Erwan Nigon and Damien Cudlin, eventually being passed by the pole-sitting German team on lap 132 and around the four-hour mark.

On board the S1000RR, the no.99 BMW team took turns on the German machine to pull a clear advantage ahead of the challengers, but due to a series of mechanical and electrical problems in the early hours of the morning the trio would lose their lead and fall back.

The difficulties elevated the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT) and Kawasaki SRC, as the pair would swap the lead during their respective refuelling schedules. The no.11 Kawasaki team eventually took control of the lead when SERT made an unplanned pit-stop in the remaining four hours of the race, the Suzuki riders of Anthony Delhalle, Daisaku Sakai and Baptiste Guittet were able to hold onto second place at the flag.

Third place went to the Austrian Yamaha outfit despite the team being penalised by 30-seconds in the first stint and delayed by a fall. Undeterred, YART riders; Igor Jerman, Steve Martin and Loris Baz fought back from 30th to finish on the podium.

Even though they spent approximately 30 minutes in the garage during the night, the no.99 BMW ended the Le Mans 24hr in seventh, 17 laps behind the leaders.

As the Kawasaki team crossed the finish line at the end of the 24 hours, the trio took the second straight Le Mans victory completing 834 laps to beat the former record by four.

Rounding out the top five was the Honda TT Legends team. John McGuinness, Keith Amor and Cameron Donald qualified in tenth for the gruelling 24 hours at Le Mans and through an impressive first stint they were able to move into fifth position, only dropping back to sixth for brief periods. In the closing stages the TT Legends were able to overcome the advances from Ymes Folch Endurance and a quick strategy decision helped to hold them off and widen the gap to remain in fifth to the flag.

Taking second puts SERT back at the top of the Endurance World Championship standings with a lead of 11 points over BMW Motorrad.

Results

PosNoTeamClassGapBest