SERT Wins the Doha 8 Hours with panache Ahead of Yamaha Austria and Kawasaki QERT
Suzuki Endurance Racing Team, who were crowned QMMF Endurance World Champions at Oschersleben back in September, completed a dominant season with a flourish today in Qatar.

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Suzuki Endurance Racing Team, who were crowned QMMF Endurance World Champions at Oschersleben back in September, completed a dominant season with a flourish today in Qatar. At the controls of the Suzuki, Vincent Phillipe and Matthieu Lagrive won the Doha 8 Hours, the final leg of the 2007 Championship, ahead of Yamaha Austria Racing Team (with riders Steve Martin, Igor Jerman and Damian Cudlin), and Qatar Endurance Racing Team (whose Kawasaki was piloted by Ivan Silva, Victor Carrasco and Mishel Al Naimi). Today’s results in Doha have shaken up the final QMMF Endurance World Championship classifications. While SERT further reinforced their position as the leading team in the championship, Yamaha Austria will now end the season in third place overall behind Team Kawasaki France in second. Qatar Endurance Racing Team’s strong performance on home soil means that they move up the overall Championship standings from 23rd place to 11th. Team 18 Sapeurs Pompiers finished in a superb fourth place at the Doha 8 Hours. On the Suzuki Stéphane Molinier, Guillaume Pialoux and David Brière also finished as the leading team in the Superproduction category ahead of the Yamahas of the Amadeus X-One (Paolo Tessari, Riccardo Ricci and Will Gruy) and Endurance Moto 38 (Julien Millet, Cyril Brivet and Joao Contente Fernandes) teams. BMW Motorrad also impressed once again by finishing seventh in Doha. In the hands of Thomas Hinterreiter, Richard Cooper and Ahmed Al Abdulla, the BMW R1200S, racing in the Open category (which is not part of the overall Championship), started from 20th position on the grid and moved up the field to finish inside the top ten. Suzuki Sweden finished eighth ahead of Yamaha Phase One, having recovered from a fall following an incident involving SERT at the beginning of the race. After a strong start Maco Moto Racing completed the line-up of top ten finishers in Qatar. The Slovakian Yamaha, lying in third place after more than two hours, were hindered by a fault with their cooling system. This most recent victory by SERT will have gained the World Champions even more admiration from their competitors, and no one would have believed they could win an hour into the race after a fall by Vincent Philippe left them trailing in last but one place. The Doha 8 Hours is, however, a speed race and the team’s overall class and speed saw them through to the win. As consistent as usual, David Morillon jumped into the lead on the Kawasaki Bolliger Switzerland in this final race of the season, but Vincent Philippe on the SERT Suzuki eventually retook the lead. The duel between Vincent Philippe and Steve Plater on the Yamaha Phase One resulted in two crashes which sent the Suzuki 1 and Yamaha 3 to the back of the field. At the same time David Morillon was hit by a rear wheel spindle problem on the Kawasaki Bolliger. In several minutes within the first hour of the race, however, the trio was thrown to the back of the race. Yamaha Austria Racing Team took advantage of its rivals’ problems to take the lead ahead of the Kawasaki of Qatar Endurance Racing Team and Honda RMT 21 Racing, who had Dutch Superbike and Supersport rider Arie Vos on board. However, a fall from Vos on his second lap eventually eliminated Honda RMT 21. Also forced to abandon were Kawasaki Diablo 666 Bolliger. In third place after two hours of racing, they were forced to retire due to electrical problems. Kawasaki Bolliger also lost all chance of a podium finish after a second mechanical problem with their clutch, and they were eventually classed in 15th position. In the Superstock class there was another victory for LTG 57. On the Yamaha Anthony Dos Santos, Amaury Baratin and Cyril Hunter finished in 11th place in Qatar, just ahead of Suzuki RT Racing & Motor Virus who registered their best result of the season.
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