24 Heures Motos – Kawasaki SRC dominates the first free practice at Le Mans –

Posted on by admin

Kawasaki SRC dominates first free practice at Le Mans

24 Heures Motos - Kawasaki SRC dominates the first free practice at Le Mans -

Even if it is only free practice – and therefore unofficial lap times – the Green clan finished the first free practice of the 24H Moto du Mans with a step ahead of its competitors. The tension mounts less than three weeks before the event !

Even if it is only free practice – and therefore unofficial lap times – the Green clan finished the first free practice of the 24H Moto du Mans with a step ahead of its competitors: on the handlebars of the Kawasaki ZX-10R n ° 11, Gregory Leblanc and Fabien Foret were the fastest drivers according to the "unofficial" times (respectively 1’37”64 and 1’38”15).

Due to the very large number of tires to test (Pirelli had made available to the Kawasaki SRC team no less than 18 rear references!), Nicolas Salchaud (1’38”89) and the, Matthieu Lagrive (1’38 ” 69), unfortunately drove less. "I apologize to them", regrets the team manager Gilles Stafler whose objective is naturally"to go for a fifth consecutive victory"after winning the editions,, and .

But on the road to this fifth success, the Greens will notably find the Yamaha R1 of GMT94 – currently -, which has also done a lot of tire validation (Michelin). "These trials were excellent", rejoices Christophe Guyot:"on a completely wet track, then mixed and finally dry, the GMT94 worked in close collaboration with Michelin to evaluate all the possible solutions in terms of tires".

The GMT first tested the settings adopted last year during the, with a better time in 1’38.8 which placed the R1 n ° 94 at half a second of the Kawasaki n ° 11.

On the second day, Christophe Guyot’s men refined the settings, taking into account "all of the work done by the technical team since the start of the season (shock absorber, fork, bike trim, engine and tire settings)". Result:"the combination of all these developments resulted in a clear improvement in terms of time, since we were able to run in small 1’37”9 and the four drivers regularly run under the bar of 1’39", says the team manager:"the competitiveness displayed since the Bol d’Or 2014 is confirmed at Le Mans".

Manage the pressure

But if "the team and the drivers are in great shape, we also have to deal with a lot of pressure", Christophe admits, because"Being leader of the championship doesn’t mean that we are the only favorites for the world title. Our competitors are strong, determined, intelligent and experienced. We all know nothing is being done. Our best asset will be to be efficient. It is by aiming for victory at Le Mans that we have a chance to achieve this. This is why we can be satisfied with our tests. Guaranteeing a result would be pretentious, but we can promise to be in the fight".

The pressure on the pilots is palpable: "I love Le Mans", confides David Checa who is pawing impatiently:"we have the opportunity to be endurance world champion for the second time (after the title of 2004, editor’s note), our crew is very solid … Can’t wait for the race !"

Kenny Foray, who did "never driven so fast at Le Mans", feels "of course on the bike"and"hope that (his) dream of being world champion will come true !"

"There was a lot of pressure at the start of testing because everyone believes that we are going to be world champions", also confirms Mathieu Ginès:"I will give my all for it, but we know it will be a tough race and we can lose everything anytime soon"…

Sacrifice this year’s race ?

For its part, the official Honda of the Honda Racing team, victorious in the hands of Freddy Foray, Sebastien Gimbert and Julien da Costa, would have turned in a time "close to 1’38" by validating several aspects for the race: "damping, consumption and tires have been reviewed without any major concern".

As for the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT), they tested "different suspensions and also worked on tires and chassis.

"Even if mathematically it is still possible, we missed our season a bit", admits Dominique Meliand."I am already planning the next few years and we have the confidence of Suzuki. Some strategic decisions must be made to know if we sacrifice this year’s race by trying new things … to better prepare for 2015".

To follow naturally as every year on MNC: stay connected !

Related articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *