SUZUKI 5TH ON BOL D’OR WORLD ENDURANCE GRID

SERT – EWC Class – 5th
Junior Team LMS – SST Class – 3rd

Suzuki Endurance Racing Team will start from fifth position of 59 teams on the grid for tomorrow’s opening round of the 2018-2019 Endurance World Championship, the Bol d’Or 24 Hour race at the Paul Ricard Circuit in France.

Today in qualifying, SERT riders Vincent Philippe, Etienne Masson and Gregg Black posted a time of 1:55.742 around the new 5.673 km circuit in Le Castellet aboard the new GSX-R1000.

Philippe set a best-lap of 1:55.678, Masson a 1:55.927, with Black putting-in the quickest individual time of the team of 1:55.623, which put the 15-times EWC World Champions just 0.837s from Pole Position when all the individual times were averaged-out.

In the Superstock class, Junior Team LMS qualified third in class aboard their GSX-R1000, and 13th overall, with riders Hugo Clere, Alex Sarrabayrouse and Louis Rossi posting a combined lap-time of 1:57.334.

Said SERT Team Manager Dominique Méliand: “We did some very constructive work and finally we’re not so far from the best today. But we still have to go on improving. We must not forget that we are working on a new bike, and it takes time to be on the top. It took three years for our competitors to develop theirs. We are still in a development phase.”