SUZUKI TOPS LE MANS QUALIFYING
 Suzuki's
GSX-R1000K7 dominated qualifying for the opening round of
the FIM World Endurance Championship at Le Mans in France
today with the Suzuki Endurance Race Team topping the time
sheets.
SERT No. 2 Team riders William Coste, Guillaume Deitrich
and Max Neukirchner put in a time of 1:39.354 on the 4.4km
Bugatti circuit beating Yamaha GMT94 (1:39.559) and Suzuki's
reigning World Champions Vincent Philippe, Matthieu Lagrive
and new team rider Julien Da Costa - who replaces retired
Keiichi Kitagawa for 2007 - in a close third with a time of
1:39.663.
The SERT No. 1 team finished second at Le Mans in 2006 and
last won the race in 2004 so will be hoping to start their
2007 title defence with a victory for the new GSX-R1000 race
bike.
The event, which is expected to draw a crowd in excess of
100,000, gets underway at 15.00hrs local time tomorrow (Saturday)
and finishes at 15.00hrs Sunday afternoon.
Final Classification: 1 SERT No 2 - Costes,
Deitrich, Neukirchner (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 1:39.354, 2 Yamaha
- Gimbert, Checa, Four - 1:39.559, 3 SERT No 1 -Philippe,
Da Costa, Lagrive (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 1:39.663, 4 Yamaha -
Jerman, Scarnato, Cudlin - 1:40.282, 5 Yamaha - Piot, Huvier,
Auger - 1:40.960.
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