Mertens wins opening round of BMW Power Cup

Belgian rider, Stéphane Mertens, was the first rider to taste victory at the
opening round of BMW's brand new one-make racing series - the 2005 BMW Motorrad
PowerCup - held at Le Mans in France last Sunday.

In front of 75,000 fans, a thunderous grid of BMW's new 175bhp K1200 R race
machines lined-up at the legendary 4.2 km Bugatti circuit. Perfect weather
conditions with sunny skies and a dry track for the start of the seven-race
series that will support the MotoGP World Championship throughout Europe.

At the start of the race, the patriotic French crowd only had eyes for hometown
hero Gwen Giabbiani, but his dreams of a podium finish on home turf ended in
the gravel trap at the end of the very first lap. Last year's BoxerCup series
victor Thomas Hinterreiter (Austria) made a bad start and saw his championship
rivals Markus Barth (Germany) and Sergio Fuertes (Spain) disappear off into the
distance, closely followed by Stéphane Mertens, with Roberto Panichi (Italy) in
fourth.

As the 17-lap race progressed, Hinterreiter clawed his way through the pack and
finally joined the front-runners. In fact, the top seven riders were so evenly
matched, there were just 1.2 seconds between them as they approached the final
stages of the race.

With just two laps remaining, Barth and Mertens endured a tough battle for the
lead at speeds of up to 155 mph, showing just how fast BMW's K1200 R is on the
track. However, on the very last lap, Barth ran out of fuel and had to retire
from the race leaving Mertens to take the glory - just 0.135 seconds ahead of
Hinterreiter. Roberto Panichi took the remaining podium spot while Sébastien
Legrelle finished in fourth position.

"After my crash yesterday, this is the perfect result for me," said Belgium's
Stéphane Mertens. "I am still getting to grips with the new bike and had
planned to take it easy, but the pace was so quick! A few riders came past me
and I really had to concentrate to stay with them. However, I'm delighted to
have won this inaugural PowerCup race."

BMW Motorrad PowerCup Ambassador, Randy Mamola summed up the opening round of
this exciting new series: "We have had a perfect start for the next step of
BMW Motorrad's racing programme. I thought the BoxerCup series was exciting
but with such a close finish for the top six competitors here at Le Mans, this
new PowerCup championship looks set to be full of even more nail biting races
than we have seen in the past."

The second round of the BMW Motorrad PowerCup will take place on Saturday June
4 in Mugello, Italy.

Ends

For further BMW press information please contact one of the following:

Andy Dukes / Lauren Haslehurst 08000 131 282
Tony Jakeman 01344 480 185

Editors' notes:

BMW also continues in its role as official car supplier to the MotoGP World
Championship. The German company will supply the recently launched M6 and the
all-new M5 to the series. Both market-leading cars feature the awe-inspiring
507bhp V10 engine. The rest of the MotoGP BMW fleet includes a 330i Touring as
the medical car; a 750i for the race director; a 545i Touring for the safety
officer, and a X5 4.4i for the steward.

In addition, lap times from all MotoGP qualifying sessions go towards the BMW
Best Qualifier Award. This end of series BMW award accumulates competitors'
times from the 17-race grid times throughout the 2005 season. The prize for
the lowest cumulative time (taken over the season) is a prestigious new BMW
M5. Only after the last qualifying session of the year at Valencia in November
will the winner of the BMW Best Qualifier Award 2005 - and the breathtaking M5
- be decided. Last year, Valentino Rossi was the lucky recipient of a BMW
645Ci worth 80,000 euros.

BMW Motorrad PowerCup race results Le Mans
See attached download document for table listing of race results