Le Castellet (France) (AFP)
Suzuki won its 18th Bol d'Or with the Yoshimura-Sert-Motul team on Sunday at the Paul-Ricard circuit in Le Castellet in an 84th edition marked by many retirements.
The crew made up of the French Gregg Black and Sylvain Guintoli and the Belgian Xavier Simeon completed in 24 hours 704 loops of the 5.673 km long circuit in front of the Yamaha of the Moto Ain team piloted by the French Randy De Puniet, the Swiss Robin Mulhauser and the Italian Roberto Rolfo.
Only 20 of the 41 teams entered crossed the finish line.
The Kawasaki N.24 of the BMRT 3D Maxxess Nevers team, from the lower Superstock (SST) category, took the last step of the podium.
The Suzuki N.1, title holder since 2019 (in 2020 the race did not take place due to the pandemic), is a survivor of the EWC premier class.
All the other favorites experienced breakdowns (BMW, YART) or crashes (Ducati ERC Endurance, Kawasaki N.11 and N.4) although the latter took over the track in last position.
The Honda N.5 had many setbacks: two crashes with its Japanese rider Yuki Takaashi, then a fatal breakdown when the Franco-Japanese motorcycle had returned to third position.
The non-racing EWCs, the SST provided the show, these motorcycles more like the production models, with performance closer to each other as well.
But here too breakdowns and crashes hit the regulars in the category.
This victory allows Yoshimura-Sert-Motul to take the lead of the EWC-FIM Motorcycle Endurance World Championship before the last round to be held on October 9 in Most, Czech Republic.
© 2021 AFP