Le Mans, 7 pm: Suzuki ahead of BMW, Tecmas eliminated / Endurance World Championship

After Hannes Soomer’s crash on the night he injured his shoulder, Jan Bühn and Kenny Foray had to cope alone with Tecma’s MRP. Driver Loic Arbel is still battling the effects of last season’s injury. However, 18 hours into the race, Kenny Foray was forced to crash the M1000RR after the engine made a strange noise.

After a long repair attempt, the team from France, which managed to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2023, had to stop the race due to engine problems. It is the third engine failure in the last three races for the BMW Superstock team all season.

The Bolliger team also had a shock time on Sunday morning at Circuit Bugatti. Nico Thöni crashed on the Kawasaki but was not injured. The Austrian took the bike back to the pits, where a quick repair took about five minutes and two locations.

The previous third-placed Kawasaki Webike Trickstar team also struggled in the 47th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Roman Ramos had to stop for a while in Turn 4. He then slowly made his way back to his crew, who worked on the ZX-10R for ten minutes.

After 19 hours on the 4.185 km long track, Yoshimura SERT Motul (Black, Masson, Linfoot) is leading with the Suzuki GSXR1000, but the BMW factory team is still chasing the record world champion. Markus Reiterberger, Ilya Mikhalchik and Sylvain Guintoli are more than a minute behind the leading team of Yohei Kato and Damien Saulnier.

Mandy Kainz’s Yamaha Austria Racing Team is in third place at 10am on Sunday with five hours remaining. After YART led all night, Karel Hanika crashed on R1 shortly before 7am. In temperatures of 3-4 degrees, Marvin Fritz also had to catch a wild slide during his race to keep pace. Niccolo Canepa later set a new fastest lap at 1:35.791.

In fourth place is the team of Tati and Randy Krummenacher, Corentin Peolari and Hugo Clere, who are the best Honda team behind the podium. Directly behind them is the top Superstock team, National Motos (Honda).

While Bolliger Switzerland is in 9th place, Motobox Kremer Racing is in 11th place, just ahead of FCC TSR Honda (Hook, di Meglio, Techer), who are slowly fighting their way into the top 10.

Metiss, which competes in the test class with steering knuckle, has also fought to move forward again after many problems at the start of the race. In addition to Gabriel Pons, Ludovic Rizza and Joseph Akroyd, the young Max Schmidt from Wuppertal ensures the fastest lap times. After 19 hours, the team is in 18th place overall.