Le Mans, 4 pm: YART gives us the lead, Suzuki takes the lead/ World Endurance Championship

Yamaha controlled the race at Circuit Bugatti, but Karel Hanika hit a rear wheel at turn 12 shortly before 7 am that morning. In the process, Suzuki and BMW were able to make up four laps back and dislodge YART from the lead.

The BMW factory team had to change the exhaust twice during the night, but the gap to Suzuki is less than one lap. The crash cost Yamaha more than ten laps, so the Austrian team returned to the podium in fourth place.

Shortly before 11pm on Saturday, Hannes Soomer crashed into the BMW of Tecmas MRP and injured himself. After spending more than 15 minutes in the pits, Jan Bühn started the race again, but outside the top 20. However, the BMW team fought back to fourth in the Superstock standings on the night – with just three drivers.

There was a problem with the Chromeburner Rac 41, which immediately ran out of fuel. Team No Limits also had to report a bad fall. This incident ended the race of Alexis Masbou and his teammates Johan Nigon, Philipp Steinmayr and Lorenzo Gabbelini. The KM99 Yamaha team also had to deal with two crashes from Randy de Puniet.

The first scores in this race were given on Saturday evening at 11 pm. The top ten earned points, with the leading team awarded ten points after eight hours and 10th place one point. YART got full points ahead of BMW and Kawasaki (Leblanc, Gamarino, Ramos).

Even after 16 hours there were points according to the pattern. Here Suzuki got the full ten points with Gregg Black, Etienne Masson and Dan Linfoot ahead of YART (Fritz, Hanika, Canepa). At this point, the BMW was in third place ahead of the Kawasaki Webike Trickstar. Team Bolliger Switzerland and Motobox Kremer Racing also managed to take important World Championship points.

German Yamaha team Kremer had a problem with the seat holder around 5:30 am. During the unscheduled stop, the private team changed the brake pads, which introduced air into the brake circuit. That took a total of eight minutes and two chances. Dominik Vincon, Daniel Rubin and Marco Fetz were in 11th place at 7:30 am.

World Championship standings after 16 hours at Le Mans:

1. YART – Yamaha, 24 points
2. Yoshimura HARD Motul, 21
3rd BMW Motorrad Endurance, 18
4. Kawasaki Webike Trickstar, 15
5. Tati Team Beringer, 12
6. Bolliger Switzerland, 9
7. BMRT 3D Maxxers, 7
8. KM99, 5
9. FCC TSR Honda, 5
10. Motobox Kremer, 5
11. Viltais Honda, 2
12. Maco Competition, 1

Le Mans, situation after 16.5 hours:

1. Yoshimura SERT Motul (Black, Masson, Linfoot), Suzuki GSX-R1000, 586 Runden
2. BMW Motorrad World Endurance (Reiterberger, Mikhalchik, Guintoli), BMW M1000RR, + 1:13 minutes
3. Kawasaki Webike Trickstar (Leblanc, Ramos, Gamarino), Kawasaki ZX-10R, + 2 Runden
4. YART – Honda (Canepa, Fritz, Hanika), Honda YZF-R1, +5
5. Tati Team Beringer (Clere, Krummenacher, Perolari), Honda CBR1000 RR-R, + 6
6. National Motos Honda (S. Suchet, V. Suchet, Raymond), Honda CBR1000 RR-R (SST), + 9
7. Team Bolliger Switzerland (Thöni, Romero Barbosa, Toledo Romero), Kawasaki ZX-10R, + 10
8. Chromeburner RAC-41 (Lesch, Tessels, Raffin, Renaudin), Honda CBR1000 RR-R (SST), + 12
9. BMRT 3D Maxxers (Pilot, Hardt, Cresson), Kawasaki ZX-10R, + 14
10. 3ART Best Bikes (Vietti-Ramus, Kemmer, Watanuki, Pot), Yamaha YZF-R1 (SST), +
11. Motobox Kremer Racing (Vincon, Rubin, Fetz), Yamaha YZF-R1, +21
12. Tecmas MRP BMW (Fory, Bühn, Arbel, Soomer), BMW M1000RR (SST), + 21

More:
14. FCC TSR Honda (Hook, Better, Techer), Honda CBR1000 RR-R, +25
21. Metiss-JBB (Pons, Schmidt, Rizza, Akroyd), Metiss (EXP), + 49
OUT Maco Racing (Meltzer, Choy, Ishizuka), Yamaha YZF-R1
OUT Honda No Limits (Nigon, Gabellini, Steinmayr, Masbou), Honda CBR1000 RR-R (SST)
OUT Racing Honda Viltais (Alt, Odendaal, Mercado), Honda CBR1000 RR-R