Unfortunately for the Phase One Yamaha team their worst expectations came to fruition with a severe oil leak rearing its ugly head in the opening stages of the race.

With just 2 hours of the race under their belts, the Phase One Yamaha team had to withdraw from the race on safety grounds, unable to track the origin of the oil leak.  

After a superb opening stint by Alex’s brother, Damian, the team had climbed from their disappointing 20th position start on the grid, to pit in 4th place, but the short lived happiness within the crew at Damian’s spectacular climb up through the field quickly turned to worried glances as the Yamaha R1 pitted with copious amounts of oil dropping from the engine.  

The team then rallied in a superb effort with their pit repairs, changing the clutch cover before sending Spaniard Pedro Vallcaneras out for the next stint, but after only one lap out, he pitted once again with oil still leaking from the bike.

The team quickly assessed the problem and hoped that they had been able to fix it. Alex then mounted the bike and left pit lane determined to try and make up for the lost time, but after just 3 laps of racing, was back in the pits with the same problem, resulting in team manager, Russell Benney, abandoning the race due to major safety issues from the continual unidentified oil leak.

Not being able to finish the race has been a big blow for Phase One Yamaha and their World Championship challenge as the result was no points at all in the first round, with main rivals Yamaha Austria winning the race and gaining maximum points, placing them at a distinct advantage for the rest of the championship.   

“ The Le Mans race was always going to be tough” commented Alex.

“We had experienced set up problems during the course of the whole weekend and that was obviously reflected in our grid position for the start of race, but as soon as the race began, my brother put in a stellar performance to move us into 4th position. At that stage we could all visualize getting a podium finish, but unfortunately it didn’t work out that way and the oil leak problem couldn’t be rectified” said Cudlin.

“It’s a real shame as it was my first race with the new team and I was really looking forward to making my mark. Everything is different for me this year, so it would have been nice to get a good start to the season. I was really impressed with how hard the crew tried to get it all right for the weekend. Racing is like this sometimes. You have good races and bad races – good and bad luck. We now have to regroup and look positively ahead to the next round”.

Alex will now be heading back to Australia for a 4 week break before he heads off for the 2nd round of the World Endurance Championship in Oschersleben, Germany.  

Phase One Yamaha team will now be working hard at their English base to repair and prepare the bike for the results in the next round that they fully deserve.

Phase One Yamaha #3 Abandon Race.