Suzuki Castrol Dominate Vallelunga 200 - Yamaha Phase One 2nd - Yamaha Austria 3rd...

Suzuki Castrol (Matthieu Lagrive and Keiichi Kitagawa) have won the Vallelunga 200 round of the FIM World Endurance Championship in convincing style, confirming their status in the championship by dominating the race.

Yamaha Phase One Endurance (Warwick Nowland, Damian Cudlin) finished in second place, and were the only team to finish the race on the same lap as Suzuki Castrol. Yamaha Austria (Igor Jerman, Thomas Hinterreiter) finished in third place after a final-session battle with Phase One. The two teams had been trading places after every fuel stop but Nowland caught and passed the Austrians with only eight laps to go.

Suzuki Castrol led all but the opening laps of the race, despite star rider Vincent Philippe being unable to ride after being injured during qualifying. Kawasaki Bolliger (Marcel Kellenberger and David Morillon) had started well, leading the first lap of the race before fading over the course of the race to finish in fourth place. Ducati Spring Team (Comombo, Mauri, Gennari) and Suzuki Fagersjo-el.se (Notman, Carlbark) also made up places in the final session, both passing the Shell Endurance Academy (Hogan, Rohtlaan, Wylie).

The expected performance of the many local wild card entries failed to materialise, with permanent championship teams filling the top twenty finishing positions. There were, however, four manufacturers (Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Ducati) in the top five places, and six nations (France, Great Britain, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Sweden) represented in the top six places.

Race Quotes

Keiichi Kitagawa, Suzuki Castro, first place: "Except for Suzuka we have won all the races, so overall I am very comfortable with this season. I wanted to win at Suzuka as well of course, but I am very happy with this result."

Warwick Nowland, Yamaha Phase One Endurance, second place: "We came here to win the race, but it's a good finish to the season. I'm a little bit disappointed we didn't win, but that Suzuki is fantastic. I'm on the podium again and I'm back in World Endurance."

Igor Jerman, Yamaha Austria, third place: "When I saw Damian [Cudlin, Phase One] on the track I tried to go a little bit faster but it was quite difficult. I could stay with him but no more."

Top Ten Finishers