World Endurance Oschersleben: Saturday (updated regularly)

NEWEST AT TOP

Amadeus X-One

After a hard battle Yamaha Austria Racing Team grabbed the first qualifying position in the final round of the qualification for Oschersleben 8 Hours, before the Michelin Research Power Team Honda.

The final qualifying round has been a bitter matter for the Team Amadeus X-One; Paolo Tessari, Ayrton Badovini and Willy Gruy, recorded the 9° fastest in the final ranking, slowed by a broken engine who was just installed to contest the final qualifying. The new engine died immediately out of the pit lane; neither Tessari nor Badovini could run their heat. Finally, with the old tired engine, Willy Gruy has been fantastic to control the challenge of the rival teams and defend the 9th position which give access to the Superpole and define the top ten position on the starting grid.

In Superpole the duty to defend the banner of the Italian team has been assigned to Ayrton Badovini that recorded the 8th fastes t with the engine rather tired. The team is already working to “refresh” the engine to start for the race in the best condition and to attack, in order to recover the lost position for misfortune today afternoon.

The race strategy foresees Badovini start for the race, then the sequence of rider change will engage probably for a couple of turns both Tessari and Guy, while Ayrton will run all the other turns.

A bit disappointed Maurizio Bargiacchi, who was more confident for today qualifying: “That has beed a very bad moment when we saw the bike silent at the pit lane exit at the start of qualifying rider 1 heat! The guys worked very hard to substitute the new engine, just tuned for the race, with the old one that had several miles of use. They have done a miracle to allow Gruy to start for his qualifying heat, as well Willy has been fantastic to record a laptime of 1’31”452 that gave us the access to Superpole. Now we are going for a working night to refresh and control accuracy the old engine in order to run an 8 Hour race long. It will be a very hard race, also because the weather forecast says that in the final part of the race will rain. I must say that after yesterday and tonight sessions of practice my hope was quite more favourable.”

Qualifying Session – Final
1st Yamaha Austria Racing Team 1’27”882
2nd Michelin Power Research Team Honda 1’27”968
3rd Bolliger Team Switzerland Kawasaki 1’29”156
4th BK Maco Moto Team Yamaha 1’29”481
5th RMT 21 Racing Germany Honda 1’29”815
9th Amadeus X-One Yamaha 1’30”698

Superpole
1st Yamaha Austria Racing Team 1’27”205
2nd Michelin Power Research Team Honda 1’27”741
3rd Bolliger Team Switzerland Kawasaki 1’28”151
4th RMT 21 Racing Germany Honda 1’28”350
5th Phase One Endurance Yamaha 1’28”369
8th Amadeus X-One Yamaha 1’28”968

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FIM

Nothing changed on the starting grid after the Superpole, which just took place at Oschersleben with the ten best teams at qualifications. Yamaha Austria Racing Team will start the 8 Hours of Oschersleben in pole position tomorrow afternoon, ahead of the Honda Michelin Power Research Team and the Kawasaki Bolliger Team Switzerland. Steve Martin on the YART signed the best lap in 1.27′205, ahead of William Costes in 1.27′741 on the Honda Michelin and Horst Saiger, rider of the Kawasaki Bolliger, in 1.28′151.

Behind the leading trio, the Superpole looked like a musical chairs game, on which Honda RMT 21 Racing Germany did the best time with Chris Zaiser, who clocked the Oschersleben 3667 meters track in 1.28′350. This allows the German Honda to finally take over the British Yamaha of Phase One Endurance and the Slovakian Yamaha of BK Maco Moto Racing Team on the starting grid. AM Moto Racing Competition gained no profit from the Superpole. They remain in seventh place. However, RT Racing Team stepped back in tenth place and lost two positions on the grid, for the benefit of Amadeus X-One and Team 18 Sapeurs Pompiers.

The warm-up of the 8 Hours of Oschersleben, second round of the Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship, is scheduled tomorrow Sunday from 9 am. The start of the race will be done at 2 pm, with a nocturnal finish at 10 pm.

To follow the race live go to: http://sp.wige-livetiming.de/index.php

About FIM
FIM (WWW.FIM-LIVE.COM), the world governing body for motorcycle sport, is an independent association formed by 98 National Federations throughout the world. It is recognized as the sole competent authority in motorcycle sport by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Amongst its 49 FIM World Championships its main events are MotoGP, Superbike, Endurance, Motocross, Supercross, Trial, Enduro and Speedway. FIM also deals with non-sporting matters such as leisure motorcycling, mobility, transport, road safety and public policy and the environment, FIM was the first International sporting Federation to enforce an Environmental Code in 1994.

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FIM

The battle between Yamaha Austria Racing Team and Michelin Research Power Team continues in Oschersleben. The Austrian Yamaha of Igor Jerman, Steve Martin and Gwen Giabbani finally took first place of the qualification round in front of the Honda Michelin of William Costes, Hugo Marchand and Josep Monge. The average of the best times, YERT come up with a time of 1’27.882 against 1’27.968 for the Michelin Research Power Team.

The qualifications were eventful for these two teams who saw their riders, Gwen Giabbani on the YART and Josep Monge for Michelin, fall at the end of the qualifying session. The riders are fine, but that is not the case for their machines which suffered from those falls.

More than a second of the two leading teams we find the Kawasaki Bolliger Team Switzerland of Horst Saiger, Rico Penzkofer and Eric Mizera leads a permanent group of teams. These teams include the Yamaha BK Maco Moto Racing Team of Dani Ribalta, Andy Meklau and Victor Carrasco, the German Honda of RMT 21 Racing Team Germany entrusted to Olivier Depoorter, Chris Zaiser and Matti Seidel and the English Yamaha Phase One of Pedro Vallcaneras, Damian and Alex Cudlin.

The newcomer from these permanent teams, the Suzuki AM Moto Racing ridden by Sullivan Hernandez, Pierre Guersillon and Fabrice Auger hoist themselves to the seventh position of this qualifying session in front of the Suzuki RT Racing Team of Jean-Louis Devoyon, Frédéric Jond and David Morillon and the Yamaha Amadeus X-One of Paolo Tessari, Ayrton Badovini and William Gruy, who were slowdown by a broken engine.

The Suzuki 18 Sapeurs Pompiers with Stéphane Molinier, David Brière and Jérôme Tangre complete the top ten of these qualifications which give access to the Superpole. It will take place this afternoon starting from 17h15. This competition of the best individual chrono on one lap will enable to redistribute the order of the first ten places on the starting grid.

In Superstock, the favourites, Qatar Endurance Racing Team, LTG 57-Zone Rouge and Endurance Moto 45 are neck a neck for the thirteenth and fourteenth on the grid. The race shall begin tomorrow, Sunday at 14h00.

To follow the race live go to: http://sp.wige-livetiming.de/index.php

About FIM
FIM (WWW.FIM-LIVE.COM), the world governing body for motorcycle sport, is an independent association formed by 98 National Federations throughout the world. It is recognized as the sole competent authority in motorcycle sport by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Amongst its 49 FIM World Championships its main events are MotoGP, Superbike, Endurance, Motocross, Supercross, Trial, Enduro and Speedway. FIM also deals with non-sporting matters such as leisure motorcycling, mobility, transport, road safety and public policy and the environment, FIM was the first International sporting Federation to enforce an Environmental Code in 1994.