After 8 hours: ERC Endurance-Ducati leads as EWC teams battle on in tough-going Bol d’Or

The race to win the 2022 FIM Endurance World Championship […] The race to win the 2022 FIM Endurance World Championship has been turned on its head during a dramatic start to the 100th-anniversary Bol d’Or. Ad One of the toughest disciplines in international motorsport has more than lived up to its hugely demanding reputation with four of the top five teams in the standings heading to Circuit Paul Ricard hitting trouble.

Their challenge has been increased by the engine-straining 1.8-kilometre Mistral Straight and a tail wind that had pushed top speeds to well above 300kph during the opening exchanges. FIM EWCBol d’Or 2022: Highlights and rankings after three hours as Yamaha lead5 HOURS AGO Yoshimura SERT Motul, the defending champion team and leader after three rounds, joined BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team – out earlier with an overheating issue – on the list of retirements, when efforts to repair an engine issue failed.

Having dropped out of contention with an engine issue of its own, YART – Yamaha Official Team EWC returned to the action shortly after 21h30 having spent some three hours in the pits. But its comeback was short-lived when Karel Hanika stopped at Turn 6, thereby ruling out any fading hopes of winning the championship.

F.C.C. TSR Honda France lost nine minutes to enable a faulty oil radiator to be replaced before the team was forced to make another unscheduled stop, this time for almost five minutes, when an exhaust problem surfaced.

It has since been trying to make up for lost time, albeit resisting the urge to go at full throttle in order to avoid further need for repairs, as the team’s French rider Mike Di Meglio explained. Webike SRC Kawasaki France was in the victory fight when it stopped for more