Suzuki Tops Le Mans Qualifying - April 20th 2007

Suzuki's GSX-R1000K7 dominated qualifying for the opening round of the FIM World Endurance Championship at Le Mans in France today with the Suzuki Endurance Race Team topping the time sheets.

SERT No. 2 Team riders William Coste, Guillaume Deitrich and Max Neukirchner put in a time of 1:39.354 on the 4.4km Bugatti circuit beating Yamaha GMT94 (1:39.559) and Suzuki's reigning World Champions Vincent Philippe, Matthieu Lagrive and new team rider Julien Da Costa - who replaces retired Keiichi Kitagawa for 2007 - in a close third with a time of 1:39.663.

The SERT No. 1 team finished second at Le Mans in 2006 and last won the race in 2004 so will be hoping to start their 2007 title defence with a victory for the new GSX-R1000 race bike.

The event, which is expected to draw a crowd in excess of 100,000, gets underway at 15.00hrs local time tomorrow (Saturday) and finishes at 15.00hrs Sunday afternoon.

Final Classification:

1. 1. SERT No 2 - Costes, Deitrich, Neukirchner (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 1:39.354
2. 2. Yamaha - Gimbert, Checa, Four - 1:39.559
3. 3. SERT No 1 -Philippe, Da Costa, Lagrive (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 1:39.663
4. 4. Yamaha - Jerman, Scarnato, Cudlin - 1:40.282
5. 5. Yamaha - Piot, Huvier, Auger - 1:40.960