24 Hours Motorcycles: Kawasaki N.11 avoids errors before the night
24 Hours Motorcycles: Kawasaki N.11 avoids errors before the night
At the 24 Hours of Le Mans Motorcycles, the slightest mistake is paid cash. After eight hours of racing on Saturday, only one bike was able to avoid these glitches: the Kawasaki N.11, which has been cautious if not the fastest at the beginning of a long night.
"I feel good on the bike, I took a lot of precautions, I do not focus on the lead or the opponents, just on my own because it's still long," said Jeremy Guarnoni, the driver The SRC-Kawasaki team won in 2016. It has been in the lead since the start of the 4th hour of the race but only counts at 23:00 45 seconds in advance. This still gives him ten valuable points for the overall World Championship standings, awarded to one-third of the race.
As night fell on the Bugatti circuit after a hot afternoon, Guarnoni and his team-mates limited the breakage, which their opponents did not manage to do, chaining mechanical problems and falls.
The Honda N.111, very fast especially under the impetus of former MotoGP rider Randy de Puniet - author of the best lap in the race - would indeed be in the lead, not runner-up, without a thorny problem of lighthouses that the blocked at the stands for four long minutes.
Same frustration for the Suzuki N.2, current third but penalized by an "all-right" of Vincent Philippe at the beginning of the race, or for the Yamaha N.7, 4th after two minor falls.
- disappointed and falling -
These three can still be satisfied to be still in the game, within two laps of the leader. Because this is no longer the case of the original favorite and title holder.
The N.1 bike of the FCC TSR Honda team, driven by Mike Di Meglio, indeed took the dust after 40 minutes, a fall that was enough to make the team down a dozen laps! "We lost the race," lamented Di Meglio.
As for the BMW N.6, full of promise since its pole position, it disappoints, with a 7th place. "We are not on the pace we would like to have," said Kenny Foray, who was hoping to give the German manufacturer its first victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Five motorcycles gave up in the first third of the race, marked by numerous falls and several neutralizations, the first of which slightly cooled the atmosphere by occurring in the first lap. But the thousands of spectators of the Bugatti have all night to warm up.
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