SUZUKI CASTROL LEAD WORLD ENDURANCE
18 April 2006 - Suzuki Racing

Reigning World Endurance Champions Suzuki Castrol won the Assen 500km opening round of the FIM World Endurance Championship in Holland after leading from the start.

Although one rider down after Mathieu Lagrive crashed and injured himself yesterday, the SERT GSX-R1000 had pulled a lap ahead by the half-way point of the four-hour event and team rider Vincent Philippe also set the fastest lap of the race with a time of 1:43.659.

Second place overall and a lap down went to Yamaha Austria, who was forced to pit early after wearing out their front tyre while pushing to catch the Suzuki. Third place was taken by Yamaha Phase One Endurance and fourth; Suzuki Fagersjo-el.se aboard their GSX-R1000.

The top Superstock class finisher was Suzuki Team Endurance Moto45 in ninth place overall and the leading Super Production class finisher was Yamaha Team Acropolis Zone Rouge 199 in 10th place.

The top seven finishing teams came from seven different nationalities; France, Austria, Great Britain, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy and Germany. The same seven teams represented four different manufacturers; Suzuki (1st and 4th), Yamaha (2nd, 3rd and 6th), Kawasaki (5th) and Honda (7th).

Said Philippe: ''It''s a pleasure to ride at Assen and for us there were no problems. It was an easy race for the team. I made a good start and tried to stay constant. I saw Yamaha Austria had a problem so I kept a good lap time but not too fast. I was thinking about Le Mans.''

The next round of the championship is the Le Mans 24 Hour race which takes place next weekend, April 22nd/ 23rd.

1: Suzuki Castrol - FRA - Suzuki GSX-R1000 - Philippe, Kagayama - 110 laps.
2: Yamaha Austria - AUT - Yamaha YZF-R1 - Jerman, Scarnato - 1 lap
3: Yamaha Phase One Endurance - GBR - Yamaha YZF-R1 - Nowland, Cudlin - 2 laps
4: Suzuki Fagersjo-el.se - SWE - Suzuki GSX-R1000 - Hanson, Andersson, Carlberg - 3 laps
5: Kawasaki Bolliger - SUI - Kawasaki ZX10R - Muff, Saiger, Morillon - 4 laps
6: Team X-One Yamaha - ITA - Yamaha YZF-R1 - Sanna, Demaneis, Tessari - +35.371 seconds
7: RMT21 Racing Honda - GER - Honda CBR1000RR - Mizera, Seidel - +1:05.900
8: Kawasaki Diablo 666 - GBR - Kawasaki ZX10R - Rohtlaan, Hutchins, Cudlin - 5 laps
9: Suzuki Team Endurance Moto45 - FRA - Suzuki GSX-R1000 - Bernon, Briere - +48.871 seconds
10: Yamaha Team Acropolis Zone Rouge - FRA - Yamaha YZF-R1 – vd Boreck, Pirot, Botton - 6 laps

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