Kawasaki trio retain Le Mans title

The French trio of Julien Da Costa, Gregory Leblanc and Olivier Four riding a Kawasaki retained their Le Mans 24 hours crown here on Sunday. They finished a lap ahead of a Suzuki ridden by Anthony Delhalle, Daisaku Sakai and Baptiste Guittet, while the Yamaha of Igor Jerman, Steve Martin and Loris Baz finished eight laps back in third. The winners had seized the initiative from the start leading after the first hour, while their hopes of overall victory received a considerable boost overnight when one of the favourites another Yamaha retired. They had struggled from the start as the first rider David Checa went tumbling to the ground in the fifth minute and then in the 40th minute it had to come in again for repairs before finally calling it quits several hours later.