Le Mans 24 Hour: Race Result

The SERT Suzuki No.2 of Costes, Dietrich and Neukirchner has won the Le Mans 24 Hour race by one lap, ahead of the SERT Suzuki No.1 of Phillipe, Da Costa and Lagrive, with the Kawasaki France bike of Plater, Giabbani and Mazuecos in third place by just under a lap.

The battle for fourth was won by Yamaha GMT94 (Checa, Gimbert, Four) after Yamaha Austria (Jerman, Scarnato, Cudlin Snr) pitted to replace their front brake calipers and pads in the final hour of the race.

Sixth place went to the first Superstock bike across the line, the LMS Junior Team Suzuki. Acropolis Moto Expert Yamaha were seventh, Team LTG57 Yamaha eighth, Yamaha Phase One Endurance (Nowland, Van Keymeulen, Richards) ninth and Team 18 Sapeurs Pompiers Suzuki tenth overall and first SuperProduction.

The BMW Motorrad Motorsport R1200 finished 16th overall and Kawasaki Diablo 666 (Hutchins, Cudlin Jnr, Ulmann) finished 19th. 34 bikes recorded a finish, out of 56 starters.

Congratulations to everyone who finished this tough race.

One Hour to Go

One and a Half Hours to Go

There are now two battles going on for the top five places. Suzuki No.2 is in the lead, 10 seconds ahead of Suzuki No.1 which is in turn 40 seconds ahead of third placed Kawasaki France.

Behind them, Yamaha Austria and GMT4 are locked in a similar battle for fourth place, with the Austrians currently 16 seconds ahead of GMT94.

In both case, the timing of final pitstops will be critical…

3 Hours to Go

There's a real battle developing between the top three bikes. All are on the same lap, with Suzuki No.2 currently holding the lead, Suzuki No.1 pushing hard behind them and Kawasaki France in third place lapping faster than the two Suzukis in an effort to close an 8 second gap.

Yamaha GMT94 are seven laps behind the leaders in fourth place, with Yamaha Austria just three seconds behind GMT94.

Phase One are still in 9th place, one minute ahead of Les Sapeurs Pompiers, and Kawasaki Diablo are still 19th, about two laps behind Moto38.

One of the revelations of the race has been the BMW, currently holding 17th place.

Only 34 bikes are still running.

4 Hours to Go

Suzuki No.1 has just retaken the lead, with the Suzuki No.2 2nd, Kawasaki France 3rd and Yamaha Austria 4th.

Yamaha Phase One are up to 10th place, Diablo Kawasaki are 19th.

7 Hours to Go

Suzuki No.2 are in first position, after a small technical problem with an oil pipe cost the No.1 Suzuki the lead, dropping them to second place.

Kawasaki France are third, just under a lap behind Suzuki No.2. Yamaha Austria are fourth, five laps down but ahead of Yamaha GMT94 who had a small crash during the night.

Yamaha Phase One have climbed back to 11th place, the BMW is 18th overall, and Diablo Kawasaki are up 20th place.

Retirements

Bolliger Kawasaki are out with engine problems, Amadeus X One with an oil leak, Suzuki Sweden after a crash by Coates and Alf's Kawasaki with a radiator leak.

15 (and a bit) Hours to Go

The front five bikes are still in the same order, with Suzuki No.1 finally having eased out a 1 lap lead over GMT94.

The rest of the field is still quite tightly packed, with teams rising and falling several places with each pit stop. The BMW is in 19th place overall, having also taken the lead in the Open class. Diablo Kawasaki, Yamaha Phase One and Bolliger Kawasaki are in 34th, 35th and 36th place; all three are lapping several seconds a lap faster than the ten or twelve teams ahead of them so it *should* only be a matter of time before they advance up the timing screen.

Alf's Kawasaki are in 47th place after a series of problems with tyres, fuel pipes, the radiator… Finally, Amadeus X One remain in last place despite their bike apparently performing better than ever since it's series of crashes and rebuilds. 52 bikes are still running.

Live results: http://www.lemans.org/24heuresmoto/live/pages/chronos_fr.html

19 Hours to Go

Suzuki No.1 leads GMT94 by 45 seconds. Suzuki No.2 is 3rd, Kawasaki France 4th, Yamaha Austria 5th.

In the Open class, the Metiss is leading in14th place overall, with the BMW second in 30th place overall. LMS72 Suzuki lead the Superstock class in 7th place overall and Zone Rouge Yamaha are heading the SuperProduction class in 12th place overall.

Yamaha Phase One are back in the race after tracing an oil leak to a loose cam cover bolt. They are currently 36th but are lapping faster than anyone outside the top five.

Diablo had been making good progress through the field but are back to 46th, just behind Maco Moto. X One returned to the race, crashed again - bringing out the pace car - and are now back out once more. Alfs Kawasaki are in 52nd place, ahead of X One and National Motos Honda who had to push for almost an entire lap after fuel problems.

21 Hours to Go

SERT 1 and GMT94 are fighting for the lead, split by just 6 seconds after three hours of racing. SERT 2 are 3rd, Kawasaki France 4th, Yamaha Austria 5th and Yamaha Phase One 6th.

Diablo are up to 40th place, seven laps behind the leaders but with 21 hours still to go. RMT21 have officially retired; their bike is now little more than twisted metal.

American Will Gruy crashed the Amadeus X One Yamaha put was able to push the bike back to the pits.

National Motos Honda have retired after pushing in.

Rumour Control

The word in pit lane is that Bolliger's uncharacteristically early first fuel stop was due to the team using extra sticky tyres and a light fuel load for the first session, allowing them to run at the front from the start of the race.

Readers of a sensitive nature should look away now. Yamaha Austria's Sebastien Scarnato was sick inside his helmet while the pace car was out in the opening laps of the race. He managed to clear his visor (we did warn you) while following the pace car and was able to get back to race pace for the rest of his session.

Le Mans 24H: The Start and First Hour

SERT Suzuki No.1 is in the lead after 1 hour, ahead of SERT 2, Kawasaki France, Yamaha GMT94 and Yamaha Austria. QERT Kawasaki are 6th, Bolliger Kawasaki 7th and Acropolis Yamaha 8th.

There is then a 45 second gap to Yamaha Phase One who were caught behind the "wrong" pace car after a crash on lap 3 by InfiniTeam also left RMT21 and Diablo in the gravel.

Diablo and InfiniTeam have rejoined the race and are now picking their way through the field. RMT21 have retired.

Warm Up: GMT94, SERT1, SERT2, QERT…

Yamaha GMT94 were fastest I this morning's warm up, with a time of 1:39.859. SERT1 (1:40.531) and SERT2 (1:40.641) were second and third, with Kawasaki mounted Qatar Endurance Racing Team fourth after putting in a 1:40.687 lap.

Kawasaki France were 5th, with Scott Smart looking set to ride instead of Gwen Giabbani. Yamaha Austria were 6th, Bolliger Kawasaki 7th, Acropolis Moto Expert 8th, Yamaha Phase One 9th and National Motos 10th.

Diablo were 19th, Suzuki Sweden 27th, Amadeus X One 29th, Alf's Kawasaki 34th and the factory BMW team 40th.

Rumour Control

Allegedly, Olivier Four exploded GMT94's race engine during warm-up, making him almost as unpopular with his team as the Kawasaki France riders are with theirs. We're told that the factory Kawasaki squad are very low on spare bodywork after a crash-filled qualifying, and have been spotted stickering-up standard road-bike bodywork as they are running low on race fairings.

Suzuki Sweden apparently kept the paddock awake on Wednesday night as they assembled their race bike out of parts collected en-route from Sweden to Le Mans.

Finally, there are rumblings from the French teams who will not be allowed to race despite qualifying faster than some of the permanent championship teams who have been allowed onto the grid. Business as usual, then…

Amongst the British teams, Yamaha Phase One were 7th, Kawasaki Diablo 16th and Alf's Kawasaki 38th. Maco Moto - with Brit rider Damian Rowley on board - were a disappointing 54th.

The much heralded and hyped BMW team qualified in 37th place but both the Benelli Tornado and female crewed Triumph 675 failed to qualify.

The start of the race will be shown live on Eurosport from 15:00 CET / 14:00 BST tomorrow, and live timing and other results are available here.

Live results: http://www.lemans.org/24heuresmoto/live/pages/chronos_fr.html

First Qualifying Update:

Qualifying positions are based on the average time achieved by the teams riders. Fastest in yesterday's first session was the No.2 SERT Suzuki with a time of 1:39.354, with William Costes recording the best individual lap, a 1:38.733.

Yamaha GMT94 were second, the No.1 Suzuki third and Yamaha Austria fourth. Last year's winners National Moto were 6th, Kawasaki Bolliger 8th, Yamaha Phase One 9th, Diablo Kawasaki 13th (very fitting).

Kawasaki France had a bad day yesterday, apparently crashing so often that they are allegedly running out of fairings. They were 4th fastest in night practice yesterday, behind the two Suzukis and GMT94.