The Honda Endurance Racing team has claimed a third-place finish at the end of a spectacular Endurance World Championship race at Portimão’s Autodromo do Algarve in Portugal. Freddy Foray, Sébastien Gimbert and Julien Da Costa managed to complete a total of 389 laps of the Portuguese circuit over the twelve hours of the race, before making their way onto the podium for the first time this year.
Freddy Foray had a great start to the race and was fourth at turn one, before eventually dropping back again. He then handed the Honda CBR1000RR SP over to Sébastien Gimbert before it was Julien Da Costa’s time to hit the track to end the first rotation of rider stints.
The team was able to make up several places during the first six hours and, as the encounter reached its halfway point, the great effort by all three riders helped in consolidating fifth place. The team then was promoted to fourth in the following hour after a technical problem experienced by fellow Honda team F.C.C. TSR: the Japanese squad eventually finished with a credible 12th, after re-joining the race in 21st place.
With the help of the efficiency provided by Motul fuel and the way the bike made its Dunlop tyres last, all three riders were able to stay longer out on track than most of their rivals, and to keep a consistently quick pace for the whole duration of the encounter.
As the race reached its 8-hour mark, seven points were awarded to the Honda squad for running in fourth place. Then in the middle of the tenth hour, the team was able to make up another spot. From then on, Foray, Gimbert and Da Costa brilliantly managed their margin to claim a well deserved podium finish, which completed a really strong comeback after the difficulties encountered on track during the previous days.
The third and penultimate event of the season, the iconic Suzuka 8 Hours, is scheduled to take place on July 28–31.
Freddy Foray 111This is an awesome result for us. After yesterday’s qualifying we were not expecting such a comeback, but we fought hard and believed in our chances for a good finish. The team has done a fantastic job and that’s a great boost for all of us to do even better for the next race. We know we still have some work to do in order to bridge the gap to the front-runners to fight for a win. But for now, we will take this podium with both hands and look forward to Suzuka.
Sébastien Gimbert 111It was an incredible race. Freddy, Julien and myself have given our all for the entirety of the race and I think we did a great job. This podium makes up for the difficulties we had before today; we kept our focus on the final goal and worked all together like the very best teams do. The guys were simply perfect and I cannot thank them enough. I’m really happy and now we need to keep working this way to make another step forward.
Julien Da Costa 111If you told me we would have been on the podium today, I would have not believed you! Joking aside, it hasn’t been an easy week and there’s nothing better than a podium to turn things around. Our race was nearly perfect and the team has done everything in the best possible way, from pit-stops to strategy and set-up work. The bike worked really well and, yeah, it’s good to enjoy this feeling again. There are still two races left in the series and our goal is to do even better.
Jonny Twelvetrees Assistant team managerWhat a crazy race! Yesterday we made some changes to the bike and we were optimistic that these were going to pay off during the race. After the warm up the guys were more positive, so we came into today with a realistic hope that things could have gone better than in qualifying, even though we could test the new set-up just for a limited amount of laps. The riders rode a superb race and settled into a good rhythm. They pushed really hard and, when they came back to the pits, they gave great feedback about tyre selection. Their pace was consistent throughout the whole race and that helped us pushing our way forwards. Obviously, a little bit of luck was on our side but this is part of endurance racing, where anything can happen. The team worked flawlessly and this is a good reward for all of us.
