Suzuki Castrol's team of Vincent Phillipe, Olivier Four and Matthieu Lagrive have won the Albacete 12 Horas Nocturnas round of the FIM World Endurance Championship.

Suzuki Castrol took the lead on lap 6 of the 448 lap race and held it for the next eleven and three quarter hours. Behind them the battle for second place raged through the night as Yamaha GMT94 and Yamaha Endurance Moto 38 swapped positions repeatedly. Neither team was able to build up a convincing advantage until the final hour and a half of the race, when GMT94 took the lead after a pit stop by Endurance Moto 38. They were able to build on this lead until they passed Moto 38 on the track - an advantage which they held until the end of the race.

Fifth place was equally closely fought, eventually being won by Yamaha Austria after Kawasaki Bolliger had to change brake pads during a routine pit stop. WRT Honda Austria had also been in contention for fifth place until a series of gearchange problems dropped them down the standings.

The race was incident packed for the rest of the field as well. 2003 World Endurance Champions Yamaha Phase One worked their way up to fourth place in the second hour, only to have their gearbox fail, forcing them to retire from the race. Spanish wildcard entry Yamaha Folch Endurance qualified in fifth place and ran with the leaders in the early stages until a minor crash forced them to pit for repairs. Five hours into the race their slipper-clutch failed and they were also forced to retire.

MV Agusta Burger King Lust debuted their new MV 1000F4s this weekend, but suffered a series of minor setbacks which ruled them out of the race results. However, with a Moto Guzzi MGS-01 entered by Classic Co., a Ducati 999R entered by Escuderia Grupo 2002 Autoferro and the full-time World Endurance Championship team X-One running a Benelli Tornado, this weekend's race saw an unprecedented eight manufacturers taking part, four of whom finished in the top six places.

The next round of the FIM World Endurance Championship is the Suzuka 8 Hours, on the 25th of July.

Quotes

Vincent Phillipe, Suzuki Castrol: "It was a good race. It was hard at the beginning, but then we got in front and we had to concentrate to control the race. The Yamahas are very fast so we must push on to make a gap; it's always possible to have a problem in the race. The last race was crazy with a big crash at the end, so this time it is good for Suzuki, and we hope for the best at Suzuka. If we win at Suzuka I will be very happy."

Domenique Meliand, Team Manager Suzuki Castrol: "In the first place, the plan was to win the race from the front, so this was a good race for us. We got pole position as well, and we were able to control the gap between us and the bikes that were in second place. GMT94 and Endurance Moto38 are difficult bikes to control, so this is a good result for us. Now we are looking forward to Suzuka and we hope to work with Suzuki Japan."

David Checa, Yamaha GMT94: "It's always a difficult race against the Castrol bike and against Moto38, so this is a good result to me. We have done a lot of testing on the bike since China and it has been worth it. We can get good fuel consumption now."

Christophe Guyot, Team Manager, Yamaha GMT94: "Although we only came second today, it was a very good second. We have proved to ourselves that in the race we can match the Suzuki - from the third hour onwards they could not pull away from us. We have also retained our lead in the championship, and this too is very important for us."

Gwen Giabbani, Yamaha Endurance Moto 38: "It was a very difficult race for us because we were always so close to GMT94, and it was very hard to stay with Suzuki Castrol. We knew that GMT94 would have to make one less stop than us so we tried to build up an advantage on the track of about 30 or 40 seconds. Then three sessions before the end of the race we lost a lot of time and it was impossible to recover the gap."

Top Ten Finishers