The Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT), has taken victory in the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, held at Le Mans, France, over April 18-19.
In front of 70,500 spectators, SERT consisting of riders Vincent Philippe, Anthony Delhalle and Mason Etienne took the lead in the sixth hour of the race and never looked back, although Delhalle had to pull out during the night after falling ill following a crash. SERT finished the race a comfortable nine laps in front of second placed SRC Kawasaki (Gregory LeBlanc, Matthieu Lagrive and Fabian Foret), who also had issues when former Supersport World Champion Foret crashed in the early stages of the race and effectively ended the team’s chances of victory.
“In Endurance, you have to manage the race, see what happens, set the pace according to the issues suffered by the opponents, take the least possible risks, and that is how we are on the top step of the podium at the finish,” said SERT team manager Dominique Méliand.
Third in the 24 hour classic went to Team Bolliger Switzerland Kawasaki (Horst Saiger, Roman Stamm, Daniel Sutter), 12 laps off SERT’s winning pace. Team Bolliger finished half a lap clear of the winning Superstock entry of Junior Team Le Mans Sud Suzuki (Baptiste Guittet, Gregg Black, Romain Maitre). Fifth went to current World Endurance Champions, GMT94 Yamaha, with riders David Checa, Kenny Foret and Mathieu Gines.
The race saw a number of retirements, including the Honda Racing Team and former world champions Monster Energy Yamaha YART, however points were awarded for combined finishes of the Endurance World Championship class (outright) and the Superstock categories down to 22nd place, meaning YART picked up nine points for their efforts.
Round two of the Endurance World Championship will be held at the Suzuka 8 Hour on July 25-26.
