Le Mans (AFP)

Seven hours after the start of the 44th edition of the 24 Heures Motos at Le Mans on Saturday on the Bugatti circuit, the Suzuki of the Yoshimura-SERT and the Yamaha of the YART were still engaged in a spectacular duel while the BMW N.37 made an unexpected comeback. .

Under a barely hazy sky, with a temperature of 27 degrees worthy of a summer month in the Sarthe, the Suzuki N.1 and the Yamaha N.7 continued their mano to mano at the front of the race.

In the middle of the afternoon, we even witnessed a spectacular pass of arms between the Frenchman of British origin Gregg Black, on the Suzuki, and the Czech Karel Hanika, on the Yamaha, rolling wheel to wheel, a few centimeters sometimes from each other, pushing the tension and adrenaline to unprecedented rates with many hours of racing remaining.

A few hours later, advantage to the bike wearing the number 1 of SERT, reigning world endurance champion, but which has not won at Le Mans since 2015, with more than 250 laps completed and 30 seconds ahead of the Yamaha N.7.

The YART had yet started from pole position at noon (10:00 GMT) but it was the Franco-Japanese Suzuki team which had the most laps in the lead.

Behind, at three laps, the title-holding Honda N.5 had taken advantage of the misadventures of the Kawasaki N.4 to settle in 3rd position.

The FCCTSR team was still scared when the French Mike Di Meglio ran out of gas a few tens of meters from the pitlane and had to push his CBR 1000 in the paddock to his box.

- De Puniet gave up -

The Kawasaki N.11 of the Webike SRC Kawasaki France Trickstar team occupied, with notably Erwan Nigon on its handlebars, a relatively comfortable 4th place with one lap of the Honda, and three laps in front of its closest pursuer, another Kawasaki, the N. 8 from Team Bolliger Switzerland.

The BMW N.37, whose pilot crashed at the start of the race, went back to its pit to repair and then started a hellish + dismount, settling in the top ten after having plunged to 36th place, out of 46 participants. .

In the Superstock category, another formidable brawl first took place in the shadow of the EWC category, involving the Honda N.55, Suzuki N.44 and Yamaha N.66 motorcycles.

But it ended because of a few crashes, which allowed the N.55 of National Motos to take the lead, with the added bonus of a very good provisional 6th place in the general classification.

On the other hand, while the top teams approached the 270 completed laps, that is to say already more than 1,000 km covered on the Bugatti circuit (4,185 km), many withdrawals were already to be deplored.

Starting with the Yamaha R1 N.96 of Moto Ain, driven by Randy de Puniet, Roberto Rolfo and Robin Mulhauser, the victim of a mechanical failure after a thunderous start to the race.

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On the list of withdrawals, the N.18 des Sapeurs Pompiers was accompanied by the N.40, N.41, N.90, N.36 and N.101.

After the traditional start of the Le Mans race, the pilots rushing towards their motorcycles in a herringbone row, a minor collision between the N.41 and N.77 motorcycles sent the two bikers into the gravel of the first corner.

This incident resulted in a first exit of the safety car, but it only made one lap before a new rolling start was given.

This 44th edition of the 24 Heures Motos takes place behind closed doors and opens the season of the endurance world championship.

© 2021 AFP