The Circuit Paul Ricard, France

The Honda Endurance Racing team will start tomorrow’s 80th edition of the Bol d’Or from fifth place after being in the mix throughout both qualifying sessions. With 24 hours of racing ahead, team spirits are high as this weekend marks the start of the 2017 FIM Endurance World Championship.

Yesterday and today’s final qualifying sessions saw mixed weather conditions at the Paul Ricard Circuit in Le Castellet, France, with limited track time. However, Honda’s endurance specialists Freddy Foray, Julien Da Costa and Sébastien Gimbert never left the top-ten aboard the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP.

Showing strong pace throughout and full of confidence, the team placed fifth overall, which is where they start tomorrow’s Bol d’Or race from. The team’s reserve rider Steve Mercer has impressed with his performance aboard the Fireblade. Although learning a new track Mercer has shown good pace and finished seventh during his qualifying session.

The Bol d’Or starts tomorrow, Saturday 17 September, at 15.00hrs local time (GMT+1) and will finish at 15.00hrs on Sunday 18 September. For all the real-time information on the team throughout the 24 hours, follow @HondaRacingCBR on Twitter.

Freddy Foray

So fifth for us tomorrow starting the race is good and we are all happy with this, the start will be interesting! The feeling with the CBR is good and everything is working well, the team has worked hard since Oschersleben and everything feels good. Now it’s down to us to perform well over the 24 hours, it’s a long race and anything can happen so we have to wait and see. I know that we are capable to win the race, so we now just have to be quiet, race and let it come to us, with endurance you cannot make any assumptions but I know with the package we have, we can be strong.

Julien Da Costa

We have a big improvement with the front of the Fireblade since Germany, everyone has been working hard to build this package for us and the feeling is good. So this is good news and we are up with the front group and can definitely challenge in the race. However, tomorrow is another thing and it’s 24 hours, so we have to work hard, concentrate on our stints and at the end see what happens. But we are all feeling confident and can’t wait to get going tomorrow.

Sébastien Gimbert

Fifth place for tomorrow’s race is good and I’m happy with that, I know that between us we can push to the front and run with the front group. Unfortunately we haven’t had a lot of fast track time with the weather conditions, but the weekend is looking clearer and we do have 24 hours on track, so I’m sure we can do what is needed. Everything seems to be working well so far and we are all confident ahead of the race tomorrow, but as we know this is endurance and anything can happen. So we need to put in the work and push hard to make sure we win the Bol d’Or, or at least are on the podium.

Neil Tuxworth, Team Manager

Qualifying has been a bit difficult for everyone here at the Bol d’Or with the weather conditions, which is unusual for this part of the world and it has been dry for the past three months, but we have experienced wet sessions for most of the time we have been on track. We’ve only really had one qualifying session, which went well for the team and we have qualified fifth overall. In endurance qualifying positions aren’t as critical as in other race series, but we’re close to the front so it will help with our start. I’m happy with the team and how the riders have been going, they have been on pace in all sessions and battling with the top teams, we are certainly capable of winning this race providing we go through the 24 hours without any major problems.