After a successful and very positive qualifying, BMW Endurance racing teams attack on the 24 Hores Frigo at Barcelona came to a premature halt after eight laps due to a crash. Thomas Hinterreiter crashed at a long left-hander and although he was uninjured, the R1200S was too badly damaged to continue. The bike was later brought back to the pits and given a complete check-up, but the team was only able to confirm that their race was over.
Thomas Hinterreiter:"That was a great pity, because practice and qualifying had gone well and we were all looking forward to the race. Im not sure exactly what happened but I think I lost the front end in the second left-hander. Luckily I wasnt injured at all, but unfortunately the bike was not in such a good shape, so that was the end of that."
Berti Hauser (Team manager):"Endurance racing is always full of ups and downs and this time it was a down. Of course we are all a bit disappointed with what happened, but Thomas wasnt hurt and that is the main thing. Its true that our actual race was short, but we are all very pleased with what we achieved in qualifying. We were able to continue the bikes development and put into practice a lot of the stuff we learnt about during the Le Mans 24 hour race earlier in the year and that will be very useful for our next race.
Here at Barcelona we had a new rider, Richard Cooper, and we are delighted the way he slotted into the team without any problems at all. We knew he had experience of riding BMWs, but joining a new and established team is not always easy. However, within a very short time, he was just part of the set-up. We leave Barcelona in a very positive mood, taking with us all the data and information back to our workshops. There we will analyse it all and continue the work making the R1200S a better bike for the next race in Oschersleben in August."
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