Yamaha Qualify Second and Third for Bol d'Or Endurance Showdown

[totalmotorcycle]

@Yamaha Qualify Second and Third for #Bold'Or Endurance Showdown


The Monster Energy #Yamaha Austria Racing Team (YART) and GMT94 Yamaha have positioned themselves as key protagonists for the final round of the 2015 FIM Endurance World Championship (EWC) at Circuit Paul Ricard. They gave their all today in a tense qualifying session and will start the 79th edition of the 24-hour Bol d'Or race from second and third place respectively.
The officially supported Yamaha teams already showed their YZF-R1s' tremendous potential during yesterday's first qualifying practice, when they secured second and third and duplicated their strong results today.
Broc Parkes was the first rider to head out on track aboard the number 7 YZF-R1 in qualifying practice two. The Australian was quick to set a low 2'00 lap for seventh place and was looking to set a fast lap until almost seven minutes into the twenty-minute session a red flag-situation occurred. Once the session was restarted Parkes gradually upped his pace again and became the third rider to drop under the 1'59 mark in the first riders' session with a 1'58.799 for third place, 1.546s from the rider in first place.
Second rider Max Neukirchner was next and quickly rose to the top when he dropped a 1'59.407. He held on to provisional pole for the remainder of the session, whilst continuously improving his times as the pace quickened. He ended the session with a best lap of 1'58.209, with a 0,880s advantage over his closest rival, before handing the bike over to the third rider.
Iván Silva suffered a crash on Wednesday during the Bol d'Or free practice session and is unable to compete in this weekend's race. Sheridan Morais filled in for the Spaniard and soon set a 2'00.275 for fourth, but with twelve minutes on the clock the qualifying practice session was red flagged for a second time. However, the South African was unfazed and showed great riding skills when he returned to action, posting the third fastest time of 1'58.464, 1.082s from the front.
Reigning World Champion, GMT94 Yamaha, has only one goal this weekend; defend their EWC title by winning the race. With no qualifying tyre available to them, they continued their very successful strategy of focusing solely on the race set-up during qualifying practice and were able to make another big step today despite challenges along the way.
First rider David Checa was quick to drop under the two-minutes barrier, with a 1'59.759 lap, but soon encountered a minor human error, which affected the electronics. After two laps he brought the bike back to the pits, but was unable to rejoin the first riders' qualifying session and finished in seventh place, 2.506s off the lead in the classification.
It took the team 30 minutes to mend the bike, forcing Kenny Foray to make a late start to the second rider session. Eager to make up for lost time he clocked a seventh fastest lap to post a 1'59.519 and move up to fourth place in the final minute, leaving him 1.310s behind the second riders' group leader.
Mathieu Gines took over the number 94 YZF-R1 from his teammate and despite a short interruption of the third rider session, he ended the day on a high. He carried a blistering pace and set a 1'57.841 to take second place in the third rider session, 0.459s from first.
Combined the YART team members rode an average time of 1'58.490 and scored second place in the combined qualifying sessions classification, 0.212s from pole. GMT94 is not far behind in third position, having rode an average time of 1'58.887, 0.609s from the front.
After today's positive results, both teams look forward to tomorrow when the 24 hours of non-stop racing action will start at 3pm local track time.



Broc Parkes - Monster Energy Yamaha Austria Racing Team (YART) rider

"We all did a good job today and we are feeling good with the bike. There was a lot of traffic on the track and on my stint I didn't get in one completely clear lap. Other than that it went really good. The team and the riders have worked really hard on the set-up of the bike and the tank to improve fuel consumptions, so we can stay out on track longer, which will be important for the race. I think this is the best position we have ever been in, with all three riders being this fast, and I hope we can get the victory tomorrow."





Mandy Kainz – Monster Energy Yamaha Austria Racing Team (YART) Team Manager
"This season we were always contenders for the position, because we were always quite close to the times of the fastest team. They had a small margin on us in Le Mans, we had an advantage over them in Oschersleben, and today they are slightly in front again. Unfortunately our team has not been very lucky this season, but our focus is not the qualifying, because there aren't any points to be won with it. We struggled with one of our regular riders getting injured in the free practice and we will have to manage to complete the race with Max and Shez [Sheridan Morais], who are not a 100 per cent fit. Both of them are still struggling due to lingering injuries from earlier crashes. I hope that we will find a good set-up, that the riders are happy and we are looking forward to a good race."




David Checa – GMT94 Yamaha rider

"Qualifying went really well yesterday. We finished third and we had the possibility to finish second, but it's quite hard to get the pole without the option to ride with qualifying tyres. We encountered a small technical mistake with the bike and that made it impossible for me to improve my time. Though I could only complete two laps we still got third position on the grid, whilst our main rival is in fifth place, so that's positive for us. We will do our best in the race tomorrow and we'll see what result comes out at the end."





Christophe Guyot – GMT94 Yamaha Team Manager
"I'm very happy because we have a good pace and are very fast. Dunlop doesn't have qualifying tyres and we finished as the first team on Dunlop tyres. We may have lost second place or even pole because of a small mistake we made with the electronics. This cost us half an hour because it wasn't possible to keep riding and fixing it took up most of David's and Kenny's stints. As a result we could only improve the set-up whilst Mathieu was riding and he set a very fast lap time. We are third on the grid, which is a good position and our pace is very strong for tomorrow's race. We are using a very safe configuration for the engine and we are still very fast, so we are in a position that we can try to win the race."



Overall Qualifying Classification
1. Team SRC Kawasaki, Kawasaki ZX 10R, 1:58.278
2. Monster Energy Yamaha YART, Yamaha YZF-R1, 1:58.490
3. GMT94 Yamaha, Yamaha YZF-R1, 1:58.887
4. Honda Endurance Racing, CBR1000 RRSP, 1:59.392
5. Suzuki Endurance Racing Team, Suzuki GSXR 1000, 1:59.551
6. BMW Motorrad France Team PENZ13, BWM S 1000RR, 1:59.656
7. Völpker NRT 48 & PENZ13 By Schubert Motors, BWM S 1000RR, 1:59.861
8. Junior Team Le Mans Sud Suzuki, Suzuki GSXR 1000, 2:00.274
9. Team Bolliger Switzerland, Kawasaki ZX 10R, 2:00.900
10. Tati Team Beaujolais Racing, Kawasaki ZX 10R, 2:01.112