Wednesday took place the last of the two days of testing in preparation for the 24 Heures Motos which will take place on June 4 and 5 on the circuit of Recently renovated Spa-Francorchamps.
Despite a stormy spell the previous evening, the sun was more than ever there for the two sessions that included this second day on the “most beautiful circuit in the world” and no less than 49 motorcycles were able to benefit from excellent conditions on the 7 kilometer Belgian route.
In the morning, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., the 2'20.887 achieved the day before by the BMW M1000 RR #37 of Markus Reiterberger, Ilya Mykhalchyk, Jérémy Guarnoni and Kenny Foray, resisted the attack of the Yamaha YZF-R1 #7T of the YART – Yamaha Official Team EWC driven by Karel Hanika, Niccolò Canepa and Marvin Fritz which was by far the fastest in 2'21.064, its best time on the hilly circuit until then. However, we noted the presence of no less than 8 motorcycles in the same second, instead of 4 the day before.
In the afternoon, between 14:00 p.m. and 17:00 p.m., the 53 motorcycles were able to put together all the work previously done to try to improve the times, and this time the confrontation was particularly intense, with all the factory teams except Kawasaki and Ducati breaking the 2'21 mark.
In the end, the BMW Motorrad World Endurance team retained its leadership from the day before but, despite a notable improvement of half a second in 2'20.344, only managed to do so by a handful of hundredths of a second ahead of the two Suzukis. Yoshimura SERT Motul's GSX-R came out of the woods at the last moment as one would expect.
YART – Yamaha Official Team EWC does not deserve anything but has to settle for 5th fastest and is almost joined by the two Honda CBR 1000RR-Rs from FCC TSR Honda France.
A final collective test is planned on the legendary Belgian circuit on May 31 before testing and qualifying for the 24H SPA EWC Motos on June 2 and 3.
Photo credits: FIMEWC.com
