It was at Suzuka that during the final laps Étienne and his teammates Greg Black et Vincent-Philippe experienced the cruel disillusionment of seeing the world title slip away from them when victory at the 8 Hours narrowly went to the Kawasaki of Johnny Rea, Leon Haslam and Toprak Razgatlioglu at the end of the race, when the Yamaha of Alex Lowes, Michael van der Mark and Katsuyuki Nakasuga was crowned for a moment by mistake.
Team SRC Kawasaki France won the World Champion title with Jérémy Guarnoni, Erwan Nigon and David Checa. This season, the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team took superb revenge from the Bol d'Or, being the only one to avoid the collective accident which eliminated the three official motorcycles of Kawasaki, FCC TSR Honda France and YART-Yamaha due to fire. . An excellent course would then allow the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team, 3rd in the 24 Heures Motos with Étienne Masson, Gregg Black and Xavier Simeon, to be leader of the World Championship with 127 points ahead of FCC TSR Honda France (with Josh Hook, Freddy Foray and Mike di Meglio) and its 87 points. Coming in third place were Marvin Fritz, Niccolò Canepa and Karel Hanika for the YART with 82, the BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team (Kenny Foray, Ilya Mykhalchyk and Markus Reiterberger) also with 82, then in fifth place the Webike SRC Kawasaki France team Trickstar who carried out a very good operation at Le Mans. The 2nd place of Jérémy Guarnoni, Erwan Nigon and David Checa assured him provisional fifth place with 80 points.
How does Étienne Masson, now teammate of Gregg Black and Xavier Siméon within SERT, envisage the 12 Hours of Estoril?
“I think that we will above all have to manage the Championship well, and not really play the race. Of course, if it is possible to achieve a good result, we will not hesitate to do so. But the most important thing for us is still to win this title which so narrowly escaped us last year. »
“We will therefore have to keep this in mind throughout the race and not make any mistakes. We will have to be good at refueling, but for that I have confidence in the team. »
“And for us drivers, it's up to us to do our job as best as possible without doing anything stupid, so I'm quite confident, even if very few people know the circuit. You will have to work correctly and intelligently. »
Leading the World Championship since the first event at the Bol d'Or, are you and SERT satisfied with your third place at Le Mans?
“Yes, because we can hardly be disappointed, even if second place was within our reach. But as I just said, the goal for us is really the Championship. The Honda was too fast for us anyway, and in the conditions we had, we weren't 100% comfortable. »
“I'm sure we just missed out on second place, but a third position given the conditions and given the racing incidents that took place throughout the event, I think we can be legitimately enough satisfied. »
For all the competitors in the world championship, were the 24 Hours one of the decisive elements of this World Championship?
“Yes, I think so, because there was the turning point in the Championship with the BMW which made a mistake just before the end, and which therefore suffered a penalty in view of the Championship. »
“But we saw, like last year in Japan, that as long as the checkered flag has not been lowered, until the last second anything can still happen. »
“We have to stay focused because nothing is done before the finish line and I trust the team to bring us a reliable and efficient bike, as well as my teammates to do the job correctly too. There is no reason why this Championship should escape us. »
Was the addition of the Estoril 12 Hours at the end of the Championship this year a good thing? Would SERT have done well without it, with a final at Le Mans, for example?
" No, i dont think so. It is certain that, given the current context, everyone is happy to go shopping, obviously. We are satisfied to do as many races as possible. Casually, if we only do very few races, the entire competition industry suffers. »
“It is important for us to ride, important to show our partners that we are racing and that for next year we will have to count on us to always be there. »
“Afterwards, we saw that there were teams like Honda who arrived with a new bike which was efficient from the start. For us, it's not any worse, because it shows us that we are going to have to work very hard this winter to try to close this gap. So it's a good thing for our team to go to Estoril. »
Is the configuration of a circuit like that of Estoril favorable to the Suzuki, in terms of the layout, the weather at the end of September, the general conditions, and the adaptation to the opponents' bikes?
“To be honest, I don't know the circuit at all because I've never put my wheels on it. I went there last year to supervise a young kid who was competing in the European Talent Cup. »
“I could see that the circuit was quite diverse in terms of turns. We have already improved our bike with updates that Japan sent us for the July tests at Le Mans, which we also used during the 24 Hours. »
“It is certain that our bike will be competitive and that we will have to be there on race day. »
Video: Replays of the last 24 hours
Photos © Suzuki Endurance Racing Team
