The GSR Kawasaki of Julien da Costa, Olivier Four and Gr̩gory Leblanc have won the first round of the 2010 Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship, with an eleven laps gap over the Yamaha Austria Racing Team of Gwen Giabbani, Igor Jerman and Steve Martin.
Kawasaki's win breaks an eleven year drought with the green team last taking victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans back in 1999.
The last hours of race were difficult for Yamaha Austria Racing Team, who suffered with some overheating problems in the middle of the night and had to make pit stops more often than not. However, the 2009 Qtel FIM Endurance World Champion managed to keep the RAC 41 City Bike of Gregory Junod, Greg Black and Olivier Depoorter four laps behind.
The result was a well-deserved podium for the Suzuki, who rode a faultless race and took advantage of the problems affecting their challengers.
This 33rd edition of Le Mans resulted in a tri-color podium, as far as the manufacturers, Kawasaki, Yamaha and Suzuki, as well as the tyre suppliers, Pirelli, Michelin and Dunlop, are concerned.
Fourth was Yamaha France GMT 94 Ipone of David Checa, Gregorio Lavilla and Kenny Foray with the team having a better race than expected. They were short of time developing the bike and needed on more tyre development with Bridgestone, as a result the Yamaha GMT 94 was never seen in the front of the race.
‰ÛÏWe could not race for victory‰Û
