| Sébastien Gimbert | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | French |
| Born | September 9, 1977 Le Puy-en-Velay, France |
Sébastien Gimbert (born September 9, 1977, in Le Puy-en-Velay, France) is a professional motorcycle road racer. He currently competes in the Superbike World Championship. His greatest success has come in the Endurance World Championship, and the bulk of his career has been spent on Yamaha YZF-R1 motorcycles.
He was France's 250cc champion in 1996 and 1997, before moving up to the 500cc World Championship on a privately entered Honda in 1998 and 1999, and racing in the 250cc World Championship in 2000, without many front-running displays.
From 2002 to 2004 he was primarily an endurance racer. He has won the biggest 24-hour races in the sport - Le Mans, Spa-Francorchamps and the Bol d'Or. He helped the team to the Endurance World Championship in 2004.
Gimbert also remained active in shorter races, finishing 2nd in the French Super Production series in 2003 and doing several rounds a year later. He also raced his R1 in 3 Superbike World Championship races, taking a pair of 4th places despite 2 slow starts at Magny-Cours in 2004, a year with few manfuacturer backed bikes. As a result of this, he was hired by Yamaha Motor France as their second rider in WSBK for 2005. He finished 16th overall in 2005, and 19th (without a top 10 finish) in 2006.
He raced in the Supersport World Championship for 2007 finishing 20th overall. He also won the 2007 Bol d'Or endurance race.