It was another strong showing from the Bridgestone supported Yamaha Austria Racing Team this weekend in the FIM Endurance World Championship, with the squad narrowly missing out on a win after 8 hours of tough racing.
Starting second on the grid, Broc Parkes dropped back to 4th place going into turn one but fought his way to the front of the pack before the ending his first stint 3 seconds ahead of fellow Yamaha squad GMT94.
Marvin Fritz put in a brave performance whilst still very much feeling the after effects of a recent crash at Assen with WorldSBK, and when he handed the bike back to Parkes the team were 30 seconds down on GMT94.
The Australian carried on where he left off and closed the gap to just 16 seconds as he handed over to Kohta Nozane who was making his debut at the German Circuit, quickly finding his rhythm but still losing time to David Checa.
Crucially for Yamaha Austria, the durability of their off-the-shelf Bridgestone race tyres ensured they were able to make one less pit stop than their rivals to claw back some time, with GMT94 also suffering a stop-and-go penalty.
In the final stages, due to their different pit stop strategies, YART regained some ground and the two squads traded the lead until a refreshed David Checa started to pull away leaving the Yamaha Austria squad to settle for 2nd place.
Both squafds finished well ahead of any other teams, once again exhibiting their dominance in this years championship.
The result leaves YART a total of 22-points behind behind the series leaders and next up it’s the 8 Hours of Slovakia Ring in late June with everything still to play for.
Find out about Bridgestone’s race tyre range here.
