24 Hours of Le Mans: YART Yamaha dominates the 1st qualifying/Endurance championship

The first qualifying session for the 24 hours of Le Mans was all about YART Yamaha. The defending champion showed no weakness and earned a temporary pole position for the long-distance classic. In the first group, the Italian Niccolò Canepa improved his teammate Karel Hanika’s record from 2022. No other driver beat the 1:34.708 minute.

Marvin Fritz also did not miss the second group. The German also sat under Hanika’s mark with 1:34.734, but the time was canceled because she had crossed the track limit just once. That’s why his Austrian team manager Mandy Kainz sent him out on the track again at the end and he actually got the fastest time in the last.

The third man in the YART Yamaha team was not so lucky. On their way to set the best time, Hanika got a fault and had to push the bike to the pits. Four minutes before the end of practice the time had come and the Czech was able to make another attempt, which he was able to complete with the best time in his group.

German Florian Alt, South African Steven Odendaal and Argentine Leandro Mercado from the Honda Viltaïs Racing team, who are driving the two-time winner of Le Mans FCC TSR Honda France (Josh Hook, Mike the Meglio, Alan Techer) were able to take third place.

In fourth and fifth place were BMW Motorrad World Endurance with Ukrainian Ilya Mikhalchik, Frenchman Sylvain Guintoli and German Markus Reiterberger with 17 times world champion Yoshimura SERT Motul with two Frenchmen Gregg Black and Etienne Masson and Briton. Dan Linfoot, who fell.

In the near production Superstock category, the Equipe Tecmas MRP BMW, which won its class at Le Mans last year, fulfilled its role as favourite. German Jan Bühn and fellow Frenchmen Kenny Foray and Loic Arbel were ninth fastest. Swiss brothers Sebastien and Valentin Suchet and Frenchman Guillaume Raymond from the National Motos Honda team blinked more slowly.

1. Time training
1. YART Yamaha, 1:34,868 minutes. 2. Honda Viltaïs, 1:35,353. 3. FCC TSR Honda France, 1:35,422. 4. BMW World Endurance, 1:35,456. 5. Yoshimura SERT Motul, 1:35,665. 6. Kawasaki Webike Trickstar, 1:35,886. 7. Tati Beringer, 1:36,024. 8. KM99, 1:36,435. 9. Tecmas MRP BMW, 1:37,273 (1. Superstock). 10. National Motos Honda, 1:37,294 (2. Superstock).