Franco Morbidelli secures pole at Sepang EWC
The YART Yamaha rider took pole position by nearly a second from his closest rival
YAMAHA and Franco Morbidelli will start the inaugural 8hrs of Sepang race from pole position this weekend.
The Petronas SRT Yamaha MotoGP rider is piloting a YART Yamaha with WSBK cohort Michael van der Mark and MotoGP rider Hafizh Syahrin in the first race of its kind at the Thai circuit. The three riders looked unstoppable on the route to pole position, with each of them hitting the top of the timesheets, with Morbidelli besting his teammates with a time of 2:03.907.
The result will be a morale booster for Morbidelli, who until this time has had no experience of racing within the sphere of the World Endurance Championship. The result shines a light on the level of quality the current MotoGP paddock contains, even stepping outside the ring of regular top-5 place finishers.
It wasn’t all plain sailing for Yamaha though, with Marvin Fritz breaking his collarbone in a crash. Fritz will be replaced on the other YZF-R1 by Karel Hanika.
The inaugural 8 Hours of Sepang race gets underway at 13.00 local time (06.00 CET) on Saturday 14th December, with the final part of the race set to run under the recently installed floodlights at the Sepang International Circuit.
Sepang 8hr starting grid
1 | Yamaha Sepang Racing MORBIDELLI Franco Yamaha YZF-R1 EWC |
2 | Honda Asia-Dream Racing with SHOWA ZAIDI Muhammad Zaqhwan |
3 | F.C.C. TSR Honda France HOOK Josh |
4 | WEBIKE SRC KAWASAKI FRANCE GUARNONI Jérémy |
5 | BMW MOTORRAD WORLD ENDURANCE TEAM MYKHALCHYK Illya |
6 | YART - YAMAHA PARKES Broc Yamaha YZF-R1 EWC |
7 | Team ERC Endurance JEŽEK Ondrej Ducati Panigale V4R EWC |
8 | BMW Sepang Racing KAMARUZAMAN Azlan BMW S1000RR EWC |
9 | VRD IGOL PIERRET EXPERIENCES ALT Florian Yamaha YZF-R1 EWC |
10 | Wójcik Racing Team REA Gino Yamaha YZF-R1 EWC |
11 | Suzuki Endurance Racing Team PHILIPPE Vincent Suzuki GSXR-1000 EWC |
12 | TONE RT SYNCEDGE 4413 BMW HOSHINO Tomoya BMW S1000RR SST |
13 | MOTO AIN ROLFO Roberto * MULHAUSER Yamaha YZF-R1 SST |
14 | TECMAS BMW GMC HEDELIN Camille BMW S1000RR EWC |
15 | SUZUKI JEG - KAGAYAMA LEBLANC Grégory Suzuki GSXR-1000 EWC |
16 | MACO RACING Team STEINMAYR Philipp ELLISON James Yamaha YZF-R1 EWC |
17 | Bolliger Team Switzerland STAMM Roman Kawasaki ZX 10R EWC |
18 | National Motos DEBISE Valentin Honda CBR 1000 RR EWC |
19 | GERT56 by GS YUASA KERSCHBAUMER Stefan |
20 | MOTORS EVENTS WESTMORELAND James Suzuki GSXR-1000 SST |
Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
