8 HOURS OF DOHA - BMW MOTORRAD FRANCE 99 in Pole Position

There is more and more pressure on the Losail racetrack. The second qualifying session of the 8 Hours of Doha will stay an impressive one after the incredible BMW Motorrad France 99 pole position, with a 1'59.928 lap which astonished the competition. The Belgium official team seems untouchable and has major assets to target the victory and the 2011 world title: the S1000RR is incredibly fast, their three riders are on top form (1'59.818 for Sébastien Gimbert, 1'59.824 for Damian Cudlin and 2'00.143 for Erwan Nigon), and their Michelin tyres have obviously more grip than their competitors on the Losail racetrack.

Hence, the first three on the grid are running on Michelin tyres. In second position is the Monster Yamaha YART with Igor Jerman, Steve Martin and Katsuyuki Nakasuga, but they are already more than one second behind the BMW, and just ahead of the Yamaha Racing France GMT 94 Ipon with David Checa, Kenny Foray and Matthieu Lagrive.

The two official Yamaha outperformed the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team, which is running on Dunlop. As they had now hope to clinch the pole position in Doha, the current world champion preferred to focus on finding the best race setup. The Suzuki Endurance Racing Team is also racing to keep their 2011 world title. In case of a BMW Motorrad France 99 victory, the SERT absolutely needs to finish second of this race in Doha to be crowned again.

Bolliger Team Switzerland (Kawasaki), Maco Racing Team (Yamaha) and YMES Folch Endurance (Yamaha) are behind this quartet of official teams.

The first Superstock bike is the BMW of Van Zon Boenig Motorsportschool Penz13 RT, in 8th place on the grid, ahead of the Honda TT Legends. Already winner of the FIM Superstock World Cup, the Team Motors Events Bodyguard AMT (Suzuki) cleared their minor technical glitches to complete the top 10 on the grid, ahead the Yamaha of DG Sport.

As expected, the women riders of the Suzuki Qatar Endurance Racing Team 96 improved their lap times today. NIna Prinz signed her best lap in 2'04.172, which is fastest than more than half of the grid from the first qualification session. Paola Cazzola and NIkolett Kovacs also improved their lap times.

The Team R2CL will start from the back of the grid. The team received a ten seconds penalty for having not respected three times the flags at the end of the qualifying session.

The start is scheduled tomorrow Saturday at 1 pm local time (GMT + 3) for a semi-nocturnal race which will end up at 9 pm.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• EWC
• DOHA
• QATAR
• LOSAIL
• QERT
• 2011
• ENDURANCE