Motul FIM Endurance World Championship

24 Heures Motos du Mans

Circuit Bugatti, Le Mans, France

April 7, 2016

Provisional Qualifying Session One Results:

(Teams are ranked by the average of all three riders’ best lap times)

1. Team April Moto Motors Events (Gregg Black/Gregory Fastre/Alex Cudlin), Suz GSX-R1000, Superbike, 1:55.416

2. F.C.C. TSR Honda (Kazuma Watanabe/Alan Techer/Damian Cudlin), Hon CBR1000RR, Superbike, 1:55.535

3. Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (Vincent Philippe/Anthony Delhalle/Etienne Masson), Suz GSX-R1000, Superbike, 1:55.592

4. Honda Endurance Racing (Julien Da Costa/Sebastien Gimbert/Freddy Foray), CBR1000RR SP, Superbike, 1:55.627

5. GMT94 Yamaha (David Checa/Louis Rossi/Niccolo Canepa), Yam YZF-R1, Superbike, 1:56.735

6. Junior Team LMS Suzuki (Baptiste Guittet/Romain Maitre/Robin Camus), Suz GSX-R1000, Superstock, 1:57.222

7. Team 3ART Yam’Avenue (Louis Bulle/Danny De Boer/Lukas Trautmann), Yam YZF-R1,  Superstock, 1:57.319

8. YART Yamaha Official EWC Team (Broc Parkes/Max Neukirchner/Ivan Silva), Yam YZF-R1, Superbike, 1:57.874

9. Yamaha Viltais Experiences (Axel Maurin/Nicolas Salchaud/Olivier Depoorter), Yam YZF-R1, Superstock, 1:58.151

10. Tati Team Beaujolais Racing (Julien Enjolras/Kevin Longearet/Dylan Buisson), Kaw ZX-10R, Superstock, 1:58.575

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

Penz13.com – BMW Motorrad Team’s Qualifying washed out by foolish April weather as Le Mans 24h Motos beginns

Le Mans, France. The high hopes of the Penz13.com – BMW Motorrad Team were washed out during today’s first Qualifying session for the 24 heures Moto de La Mans, the first round of the 2016 FIM Endurance World Championship. The team struggled in rain, hail and changeable conditions. The bright spot of the day has been the Free Practice session in the morning with Mathieu Gines, Kenny Foray and Lukas Pesek finishing in third position in dry conditions.

The day started with dry conditions and Gines, Foray and Pesek setting a blistering pace of 1:38,827 Minutes handing the BMW S 1000 RR equipped team third position in the time sheets, just 0.210 seconds behind the leaders of the session.

Shortly before the start of the Qualifying a downpour went over the 4.185 kilometres long Circuit Bugatti in Le Mans, handing wet conditions to the riders.

First out on track was Gines, posting a 2:00,140 lap in 17th position of his group. Foray then had to deal with worsened conditions again, lapping in 2:06.768 in 50th position with other riders taking advantage of a drying track. Pesek finished his session in 22nd, taking advantage of a in-part dry track to post a 1:58.550. All three stayed upright and didn’t do any damage to their BMW S 1000 RR machinery.

In the average lap time the Penz13.com – BMW Motorrad Team now holds on to provisional 30th on the grid for Saturdays / Sundays 24 hours of Le Mans. The cumulated time is a 2:00.140.

Reserve rider Alessandro Polita from Italy got a half-half situation with some dry sections and some still wet managing a 1:56.818 time on rain tires. He finished his session in tenth position.

Kenny Foray

Rider

“It were difficult conditions for our Qualifying sessions today and the main target was reached: No one of us crashed, no one got injured, all is healthy and good. We tried to develop a good feeling for the BMW S 1000 RR on the Pirelli rain tires and I think we can go faster as well. But we didn’t want to do anything silly today, so it is good as it is for now. It looks like we could face such conditions further on course of the weekend, so we need to stay calm and work focused on that topic as well.”

Mathieu Gines

Rider

“Weather was not on our side today and we were carefully taking a couple of first laps on the BMW S 1000 RR and on the Pirelli rain tires to get a feeling for both. Unfortunately we might have to face similar conditions during the race this weekend, so we didn’t take any risks for now and just tried to get a good feeling together. We hope for dry conditions in tomorrows qualifying because we all three proved we are quick in those during today’s free session.”

Lukas Pesek

Rider

“Shortly before the start of my qualifying it rained again and also some hail was going down, so the track was completely wet again when we started. At the end it dried out in some places very quickly, others still were damp and wet. Its been a difficult situation but we were focusing on getting a good feeling for the bike and tires in such conditions without taking any stupid risks.”

Rico Penzkofer

Team Principal

“Well, today has been full of mixed emotions. The Free Practice was going as good as expected as we were amongst the front runners and this is our target for sure. In the dry we have the pace to fight at the sharp end of the field. During the Qualifying we agreed with all riders to take it easy and not risk too much in those conditions. All of them were supposed to just develop a good feeling for the bike and rain tires as we might face mixed conditions during the race as well. We will see, it might has been a mistake to antedate this opening round by two weeks. But it’s the same for everybody and take what we get.“