8 Hours of Doha, DG Sport Herock, 3rd Superstock on the start grid

The Yamaha #9 lays for this 8 Hours of Doha in the hands of a high-performing trio of riders. Josep Monge, who already joined the team at the 24 hours of Le Mans is teamed up with Hugo Marchand, Michelin Test Rider and usual spare rider on the official BMW, and Raymond Schouten, who finally finished his Dutch Championship.

The three guys managed to put the Yamaha DG Sport Herock on the 11th position on the start grid and 3rd in the Superstock category.

« We know we have the potential, Team Manager Olivier Aerts explains, and we’re very happy to be able to prove it here with the help of our Michelin test riders. We did a lot of work in view of the lap times yesterday. Today, in the second session, we focused on the settings of the chassis and the tyres in racing configurations to be as efficient as possible right from the start tomorrow. The three riders are doing 2’04 and we’ll give it our utmost tomorrow to show the value of the DG Sport Herock/Yamaha/Michelin liaison ».

Josep Monge appreciates the hard work that has been done by the team since September. « The motorcycle is a lot easier to handle than in Le Mans. We also found, together with Michelin, some very powerful tyres but above all very constant throughout the entire relais ».
Hugo Marchand, who usually rides the official BMW, that will start from the pole position, discovered the Yamaha in Doha. « Compared to the BMW, we have to admit that our bike is not made to set pole position, but the settings are very good to be efficient during the race. If we don’t make any mistakes and we play the ace of regularity, it should pay off ».

Raymond Schouten was the fastest during the test sessions, with 2’03.910 but his teammates aren’t very far behind, Hugo at 2’04.011 and Josep at 2’04.033.

« Our other advantage here is that we have a very fast and homogeneous team » Raymond concludes.

A last test session is scheduled tomorrow morning at 10 h (local time GMT +3) with the warm up. The race starts at 13 h, a race and a semi-nocturne (the sun goes down around 16 h 30 in Doha) and an arrival at 21 h.

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