Source: Honda Racing.

Honda Racing has finally clinched its first victory by winning the Oschersleben 8 Hours ahead of Yamaha Racing GMT 94 Michelin who strengthened their grip on the championship lead. Discreet in the practice but impressive during the race, Bolliger Team Switzerland took the third step on the podium.

This third round of the FIM Endurance World Championship was another crazy race. The tone was set from the start with a crash for the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team that led Monster Energy Yamaha YART to crash in turn. A few moments later, a touch brought down the Kawasaki SRC. The three favourites therefore started the race at the back of the field.

Honda Racing, after a head to head with SRC Kawasaki at the start, took the lead and never let it go. Julien Da Costa, Sébastien Gimbert and Freddy Foray powered this British team to its first victory. They withstood the pressure piled on from the start by David Checa, Kenny Foray and Mathieu Gines on the Yamaha Racing GMT 94 Michelin.

Held back at the end of the race by a crash on an oily track that heralded 45 minutes of safety car, the French Yamaha finished two laps behind the winners but bolstered their place at the top of the world rankings with a lead of 21 points over Bolliger Team Switzerland.

The Swiss team made their mark in Oschersleben. Horst Saiger, Roman Stamm and Daniel Sutter pulled off a copybook race on the #8 Kawasaki taking second place in the world rankings just ahead of the Team SRC Kawasaki. On the French Kawasaki, Gregory Leblanc, Matthieu Lagrive and Fabien Forêt had to work very hard to reach 10th place overall and seventh in EWC.

The Suzuki Endurance Racing Team made a better recovery from its early misfortunes. Vincent Philippe, Anthony Delhalle and Erwan Nigon finished sixth overall and fourth in their EWC class ahead of Team 18 Sapeurs Pompiers and Monster Energy Yamaha YART. Flembbo Leader Team, National Motos and Motobox Kremer by Shell Advance made up the top 10 in EWC.

The Superstocks, very impressive in the practice, did not disappoint in the race. Penz13.com Franks Autowelt Racing Team (Pedro Vallcaneras, Bastien Mackels and Markus Reiterberger) took the category win, finishing just shy of the overall podium ahead of Qatar Endurance Racing Team (Anthony West, Alex Cudlin and Mashel Al Naimi) and Junior Team LMS Suzuki (Baptiste Guittet, Etienne Masson and Gregg Black) who held on to their provisional lead in the Superstock class.

There were a lot of crashes, some of them terminal. While some managed to get back into the race, Broc Parkes’ departure from the track after he had spent the first two hours battling it out in the leading trio put Monster Energy Yamaha number 07 out of the race. A crash at the end of the race put paid to the hopes of a podium finish for the Suzuki of Team R2CL and Gareth Jones.

The Maco Moto Racing Team of Australian debutant Alex Phillis endured a long race to finish 25th overall and 13th in the EWC category on a total of 262 laps.

2014 FIM Endurance World Championship
Round three – Oschersleben, Germany

Overall results:
1. Honda Racing 291 laps
2. Yamaha Racing GMT 94 289
3. Bolliger Switzerland Kawasaki 288
4. Penz13.com Autowelt Racing BMW 288
5. Qatar Endurance Racing Team (Anthony West/Alex Cudlin) 288
6. Suzuki Endurance Racing Team 287
7. Team 18 Sapeurs-Pompiers 285
8. Junior Team LMS 285
9. Monster Energy YART (Rick Olson) 284
10. SRC Kawasaki 282
25. Maco Moto Racing Team Yamaha (Alex Phillis) 262

Championship standings:
1. Yamaha GMT 94Yamaha 91
2. Bolliger Switzerland Kawasaki 70
3. SRC Kawasaki 69
4. Honda Racing 54
5. Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (Damian Cudlin) 44
6. Team Motors Events Suzuki 44
7. National Motos Honda 44
8. Musasashi Harc Pro Honda 35
9. Yoshimura Suzuki (Josh Waters) 29
10. Monster Energy YART (Rick Olson/Wayne Maxwell) 27

Click here for detailed results