April 17th, 2026.
YOSHIMURA SERT MOTUL PLACES SIXTH ON GRID FOR 24 HEURES MOTOS
Yoshimura SERT Motul finished the qualifying sessions for the 24 Heures Motos in sixth place today, Friday the 17th of April, following two fiercely contested sessions. Despite a crash, the Franco-Japanese team has a strong race set up ahead of the start of the opening round of the 2026 FIM Endurance World Championship.
The FIM Endurance World Championship kicks off this weekend at the Bugatti Circuit, Le Mans, with the 49th edition of the 24 Heures Motos. Yoshimura SERT Motul, the most successful team in the event’s history, went into qualifying with the clear aim of securing a front-row position to reclaim victory at this legendary circuit.
Team regulars Gregg Black, Etienne Masson and Dan Linfoot are back in action on the Suzuki GSX-R1000R, this year sporting the #12 plate. Linfoot was unable to contest the 24 Heures Motos in 2025, due to a shoulder injury picked up in testing, and was replaced by reserve rider Cocoro Atsumi. However, he is on the pace for this season’s EWC opener, which boasts a record field of 60 teams, with varying levels and some highly competitive rivals.
During the first qualifying session, in fine weather, Black clocked a time of 1:35.399, finishing fifth in the blue group. Masson took second place, among the yellow rider session with a time of 1:35.481, despite a red flag that interrupted the session. Dan Linfoot finished sixth in his session with a time of 1:36.106.
Today’s second qualifying session disrupted the team’s upward momentum. Black crashed on the fourth lap of his session, forcing an early return to the pits. He still managed a time of 1:35.749, placing him ninth in his group. Masson then took to the track on the race bike and managed to clock a 1:35.294 time and fifth in the yellow group, despite traffic on the track. Linfoot increased his pace and went with a 1:35.430 on used tyres, placing him seventh among the riders in his red group session. The combined times ultimately placed the team in sixth position, within a highly competitive field.
Having finished sixth overall at the 24 Heures at Le Mans last year, following a turbulent race, and as 2025 FIM EWC runners-up, the team led by Yohei Kato and Damien Saulnier remains fully focused on the upcoming 24-hour race. The team has one objective and that is to fight for victory – these qualifying sessions do not reflect the team’s level of preparation and do not question that objective.
Yohei Kato, Team Director; “We are extremely disappointed with this result, especially after sacrificing yesterday’s first qualifying session to focus entirely on today. The crash not only prevented Gregg from completing his flying lap, but it also compromised our run plan for the rest of the session. However, the race is a different story, and our starting position doesn’t reflect our true pace. We will give it everything we have to secure our first victory at Le Mans in two years.”
Damien Saulnier; Team Manager; “A sixth-place qualifying means we won’t collect additional points; we’ve just missed out, but we have a long road ahead. Le Mans will be a tricky race. Qualifying is one thing, but the race will be quite another. We’re feeling a bit frustrated, because I think we deserved better. One thing’s for sure: the riders are happy with the race bike. But it’s true that we were expecting a bit better in qualifying, although it’s not a disaster. The competition will be tough, I’m sure of that, but the competition knows we’ll be there too. From the moment the race starts, we’ll need to be alert, skilful, fast and not make any mistakes. A 180-degree glance from right to left to take in everything happening on the track, with the varying levels of certain bikes. We’ll be riding on a tightrope because there are so many bikes – it’s great that there are 60 bikes on the grid. The race is going to be tricky. It promises to be a great spectacle and is sure to have plenty of twists and turns. We’re ready.”
Gregg Black; “I felt pretty good on the bike; we’ve got a good race pace, the team has worked well and the overall balance is good. Today the conditions were right for us to push a bit harder and set a fast lap at a good race pace. I set off on a qualifying tyre, however, unfortunately, in the penultimate corner, as I was leaning into it, I scraped the sump on the ground and crashed. So it’s a bit of a shame as I was on a good lap. I’m confident my team-mates will set some good times. On the track, it’s still tricky. It’s not necessarily the number of riders, but the difference in level between some of them. But that’s how it is; we just have to deal with it.”
Etienne Masson; “ I’m a bit frustrated because things went quite well yesterday. We’d decided to save the new tyres for today, so yesterday we were quite happy with our lap times on the tyres we had, but unfortunately Gregg crashed during his session today. When I went out on track, I was holding back a bit. On the lap where I was feeling good and setting a fast time, I was slowed down by another rider. In any case, we’ve got a good bike; it’s performing well. It’s going to be a long race. I think we’ll be better in the race than in qualifying, as usual.”
Dan Linfoot; “Yeah, it’s not been easy for us actually. The weather has been okay. No rain, it’s been quite stable for everybody. But we’ve not had a clear, direct run in all the sessions. We had some issues. Greg had a crash. We had to change the tyre strategy a little bit. Obviously, we’re not in the position that we want to be. We would prefer to be in the top three on the grid. But we have to accept this and now look for the 24 hour race. The feeling on the bike is quite good. Some things are working really well. Anything can happen, it’s a long race. Normally we come really strong in the race, the team is very ready for the race, so we’re looking forward to that now.”
The 49th edition of the 49th 24 Heures Motos on the Bugatti Circuit at Le Mans, the opening round of the 2026 FIM Endurance World Championship, gets underway at 15.00H CET tomorrow Saturday, the 18th of April 2026.
Pictured:
1. 2026 Yoshimura SERT Motul crew
2. Gregg Black
3. Etienne Masson
4. Dan Linfoot
5. Etienne Masson during night practice
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