Team SRC Kawasaki will start from pole position today (Saturday) at the Bol d’Or, ahead of YART Yamaha and F.C.C. TSR Honda France. The race – the opening round of the 2017-2018 FIM EWC – will be flagged off at 3pm on the Paul Ricard circuit.
Team SRC Kawasaki will have a head start on the competition. Mathieu Gines, Fabien Foret and Randy de Puniet (who set his quickest lap – a 1’57.532), put the ZX 10R #11 in pole position at the Bol d’Or, the opening round of the 2017-2018 FIM EWC.
YART Yamaha and F.C.C. TSR Honda France significantly improved their performances in the second qualifying session on the Paul Ricard circuit this morning, despite cool weather and a spell of light rain. The Austrian Yamaha squad (Broc Parkes, Marvin Fritz and Kohta Nozane) took second place on the starting grid, just ahead of Josh Hook, Alan Techer and Freddy Foray on the Japanese Honda.
In fourth place on the grid is Suzuki Endurance Racing Team, still very much a favourite to win with riders Vincent Philippe, Etienne Masson and Gregg Black in the saddle of the GSX-R 1000 2017.
Another team to watch out for is Honda Endurance Racing with its rejigged line-up (Gregory Leblanc, Sébastien Gimbert and Yonny Hernández), not to mention 2016-2017 FIM EWC champions GMT94 Yamaha (David Checa, Niccolò Canepa and Mike Di Meglio), respectively fifth and sixth on the grid.
Two BMW squads – Team Tecmas and IV Racing BMW CSEU – will line up next to each other on the grid, in 7th and 8th place.
Right behind them is Yamaha Viltaïs Experiences, winner of the 2016-2017 FIM EWC World Cup and the top Superstock team post-qualifying at the Bol d’Or. The two other quickest teams in this class were Team 33 Accessoires Louit Moto and Ecurie Chrono Sport.
Tyre checks
Four teams were issued a 30-second stop-and-go penalty to be applied during the first two hours of the race for not having markings on their qualifying tyres. EWC teams are given 45 tyre stickers and Superstock teams 27 stickers for 24-hour races. The four teams that got a penalty are Glazik Moto Sport, Acro Racing Team 64, LMC Endurance and Team Broke Racing.
The 81st Bol d’Or starts at 3pm CEST
