Honda’s endurance teams targeting victory at the 12 Hours of Estoril
Circuito do EstorilThe second round of the 2021 FIM Endurance World Championship gets underway at Estoril this weekend, Saturday 17th July, and Honda’s endurance teams are ready for action at the 4.182km Portuguese track.
F.C.C. TSR Honda France is set to extract the most out of their Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP machine at the 12 Hours of Estoril, where the Japanese team finished second last year, only 24.5s from the win.
Although at the previous race, at Le Mans, F.C.C. TSR Honda France finished in ninth place, the team showed a very solid and consistent performance during the race, and proved to have a high endurance spirit and ability to fight until the end.
Honda’s endurance specialists Josh Hook, Mike Di Meglio and Yuki Takahashi are aiming for victory at the technical Estoril circuit, where last year Mike Di Meglio secured the fastest lap of the race (1’39.270).
National Motos are leading the Superstock championship after an incredible win and a very consistent race at the 24 Heures Le Mans aboard the Fireblade SP. Guillaume Antiga, Stéphane Égea and Enzo Boulom will defend their position in a hard battle expected amongst the Superstock teams at the Portuguese circuit.
Privateers RAC 41 Chromeburner are looking forward to getting back to the track and are confident for a good result after having retired in the early stages of the Le Mans race due to a crash.
The 12 Hours of Estoril officially starts on Thursday 15th July with free practice, qualifying and night practice. The final positions on the starting grid will be determined after the last qualifying sessions, which take place on Friday 16th July. The race will be flagged off at 10:00am (CEST) on Saturday 17th July.
'I am really looking forward to the Portugal race, last year we were quite fast, and we know that our bike works well there and our tyres work well too, so we are ready for the race. Our team is very strong, and Mike and I know the track and Yuki can be strong and really help the team here. The focus from here on now is to win races and get the maximum points. We qualified well, so we have to capitalise it with the victory.
‘After the Le Mans race I really hope to do a good race there as last year we were very close to the victory plus I like this track. Our team and mechanics have worked very hard to fix an issue we had at Le Mans. I trained a lot these weeks to be ready and fit for Estoril, and I am really looking forward to race there and take a win.’
‘I got a good experience from Le Mans race, but unfortunately, we encountered a problem and didn’t get the expected result. We got some data from the last race, so we are ready for Estoril. I raced in this track a long time ago, Josh and Mike are more familiar as they competed here last year, but I will work hard and fight for the win.'
