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Yamaha won the motorcycling version of the Le Mans 24 hours race.

The bike, ridden in turn by Slovenian Igor Jerman, Australia's Steve Martin and Frenchman Gwen Giabbani, came in seven laps ahead.

"I've had to wait 11 years to win the Le Mans 24HR Moto," Jerman said. "This year the team was very well prepared with the new Yamaha bike and we also changed tyres to Michelins which were great."

Giabbani added: "Igor waited 11 years for his second victory, while for me it's my first. There were no issues with the fantastic performance of the bike, and we lost very little time in stops. There were no crashes to be regretted - everything was perfect."

Martin was similarly ecstatic with the win.

"It's absolutely incredible to win here on my second time at the 24HR," he commented. "The bike performed faultlessly which made the whole race easier.

"My team-mates both performed unbelievably, we made the right steps at the right times which gave us an advantage. We were then able to put pressure on the other teams and forced them to make mistakes."

The Honda France trio of Sebastien Charpentier, Matthieu Lagrive and Britain's Steve Plater took second.

They were four laps ahead of the Suzuki Endurance Racing team of Guillaume Dietrich, Vincent Philippe and Barry Veneman.

The Suzuki Junior Team LMS squad of Freddy Foray, Cedric Tangre and Louis Bulle snatched victory in the Superstock class.

Over 90,000 fans attended the 32nd edition of the race.

Eurosport