Source: Supplied.

The battle began raging at the end of the first hour of the Oschersleben 8 Hours, round three of the 2015 FIM Endurance World Championship.

For seven hours, GMT94 Yamaha and Suzuki Endurance Racing Team were neck and neck, taking the lead by turns to give everyone edge-of-seat thrills.

Eventually it was the world champion team of GMT94 Yamaha that took an 18-second victory at the close of the 8 Hours.

Although the Monster Energy Yamaha YART team had also set out to win, they ended up on the third step of the podium including Australia’s Broc Parkes.

Junior Team Le Mans Sud Suzuki finished in first place in the Superstock category, and in fourth place overall. It was another great performance from this team, which faced a threat from local team Völpker NRT 48 & Penz13 by Schubert Motors.

Starteam Pam-Racing and Team Traqueur Louit Moto 33 rounded off the Superstock podium.

Honda Racing, the winner of last year’s race, managed to hang on to fifth place despite several incidents: running out of fuel, a minor fall by Julien Da Costa and a pit stop to refit the chain inside the sprocket.

BMW Motorrad France Team Penz13 finished in sixth place, though its star rider Markus Reiterberger was in the lead for the entire first hour of the race.

The factory BMW had to refuel more frequently than its rivals and was also thrown off-kilter by a clutch problem throughout the event.

One of the major incidents of this year’s Oschersleben 8 Hours was SRC Kawasaki retiring two hours and 40 minutes into the race because of a broken valve when the team was in second place.

The FIM EWC will meet up again on 19-20 September at the Bol d’Or, which is back at the Paul Ricard circuit in Castellet this year.

2015 FIM Endurance World Championship
Round three – Oschersleben, Germany

Race results:
1. GMT94 Yamaha
2. Suzuki Endurance Racing Team
3. Monster Energy Yamaha Austria Racing Team (YART)
4. Junior Team Le Mans Sud Suzuki
5. Honda Endurance Racing
6. BMW Motorrad France Team Penz13
7. Starteam PAM racing Suzuki
8. Maco Racing Team Yamaha
9. National Motos Honda
10. Team Traqueur Louit Moto 33 Kawasaki

Click here for detailed results