Qatar Endurance Racing Team riders Alex Cudlin, Anthony West and Mishal al-Naimi on the Superstocks podium on Saturday.
Qatar Endurance Racing Team (QERT), consisting of Anthony West, Alex Cudlin and Mishal al-Naimi, finished just shy of the overall podium in Superstocks in Oschersleben 8 Hours on Saturday.
Penz13.com Franks Autowelt Racing Team (Pedro Vallcaneras, Bastien Mackels and Markus Reiterberger) took the category win ahead of QERT and Junior Team LMS Suzuki (Baptiste Guittet, Etienne Masson and Gregg Black).
Overall, Honda Racing finally clinched its first victory by winning the Oschersleben 8 Hours ahead of Yamaha Racing GMT 94 Michelin who strengthened their grip on the Championship lead. Discreet in the practice but impressive during the race, Bolliger Team Switzerland took the third step on the podium. This 3rd round of the FIM Endurance World Championship was another crazy race. The tone was set from the start with a crash for the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team that led Monster Energy Yamaha YART to crash in turn. A few moments later, a touch brought down the Kawasaki SRC. The three favourites therefore started the race at the back of the field.
Honda Racing, after a head to head with SRC Kawasaki at the start, took the lead and never let it go. Julien Da Costa, Sébastien Gimbert and Freddy Foray powered this British team to its first victory. They withstood the pressure piled on from the start by David Checa, Kenny Foray and Mathieu Gines on the Yamaha Racing GMT 94 Michelin. Held back at the end of the race by a crash on an oily track that heralded 45 minutes of safety car, the French Yamaha finished two laps behind the winners but bolstered their place at the top of the world rankings with a lead of 21 points over Bolliger Team Switzerland.
The Swiss team made their mark in Oschersleben. Horst Saiger, Roman Stamm and Daniel Sutter pulled off a copybook race on the #8 Kawasaki taking second place in the world rankings just ahead of the Team SRC Kawasaki. On the French Kawasaki, Gregory Leblanc, Matthieu Lagrive and Fabien Forêt had to work very hard to reach 10th place overall and 7th in EWC.
The Suzuki Endurance Racing Team made a better recovery from its early misfortunes. Vincent Philippe, Anthony Delhalle and Erwan Nigon finished 6th overall and 4th in their EWC class ahead of Team 18 Sapeurs Pompiers and Monster Energy Yamaha YART. Flembbo Leader Team, National Motos and Motobox Kremer by Shell Advance made up the Top 10 in EWC.
