24 Hours of Le Mans Motorcycles: the SERT Suzuki wins after an indecisive race

The Suzuki N.12 of SERT won the 47th edition of the 24 Heures Motos on Sunday on the Bugatti circuit in Le Mans after an indecisive race which saw numerous changes of leaders.

She is ahead of the BMW N.37 by two laps while the YART Yamaha N.1 completes the podium 5 laps behind the winners. After occasionally occupying first place in the very first hours of the race, the Suzuki N.12 fell and had to begin a nighttime recovery before taking advantage of the fall of the leading motorcycle which was then the Yamaha N.1 of the YART.

This is the 18th victory since 1981 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans Motos for SERT, now associated with the Japanese team Yoshimura.

“After the fall I said to myself, it’s going to be complicated, we won’t be able to do it, it’s moving forward very quickly and despite everything we always believed in it and it worked,” underlined Damien Saulnier, head of the team. Franco-Japanese.

SERT won this event, the first round of the EWC motorcycle endurance world championship, in 2021 and 2022 but left victory last year to the Honda of F.C.C. TSR Honda France, forced to abandon this year.

BMW failed to include the name of a European brand on the 24 Heures Motos prize lists for the first time. The Bavarian team has always been close to the lead but was slower than the Suzuki of SERT or the Yamaha of YART when the latter was in command.

She also suffered problems with her exhaust just as the Yamaha crashed, which prevented her from taking first place while holding off the SERT Suzuki.

The race took place in dry but cold weather. The public showed itself to be disciplined without any incidents, which were frequent during this event, being reported.