FIM (EWC) Endurance World Championship title-winning Yoshimura SERT Motul will start the Bol d’Or 24-hour race from pole position tomorrow (Saturday) after Étienne Masson set the first sub-1m50s lap around the 5.673-kilometre Circuit Paul Ricard.
The French rider’s sensational performance, a 1m50.932s, earned his Suzuki-powered team five crucial points as it bids to make it back-to-back EWC titles alongside team-mates Gregg Black and Dan Linfoot.
BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team was second quickest to score four points and move joint top of the standings with Yamalube YART Yamaha EWC Official Team, which was third fastest.
Masson said: “Yesterday was good but I was alone on the main straight with no slipstream. I knew if I could grab a slipstream then there would be something I could do. I was lucky but I thank Corentin Perolari who I could stay behind to grab the slipstream. When I overtook him on the back straight I said, ‘now it’s time to do my job’ and show I could do it. When I saw the lap on my dashboard it was really very exciting and I’m very happy. We have a really good pace and the team works really well. We are very competitive with the pitstop timings and everything is under control. We are still far back in the standings so we have to make our own race and see.”
Wójcik Racing Team qualified on pole in the Dunlop-equipped Superstock category by 0.6s ahead of BMW-powered Champion-MRP-Tecmas and Team Étoile, which also uses a BMW M 1000 RR. Poland-based Wójcik Racing Team’s Honda-equipped line-up of Mateusz Molik, Philipp Steinmayr, Jordi Torres and EWC newcomer Nicholas Spinelli is competing together for the first time. Following a dramatic Second Qualifying, Spanish rider Torres said: “This is my first time in this track and the same for Mateusz and Nicholas. The category is really close, we have the same lap times and it seems like a sprint race, riding on the limit. The difference will be with the pitstops and the strategy. We are 100 per cent focused to do no mistakes.”
The Tati-run Moto Revue Moto Journal team, which features multiple EWC champion and Bol d’Or winner Vincent Philippe and X-Games and Red Bull X-Fighters Freestyle Motocross hero Tom Pagès in its line-up, set the pace in the Dunlop-supplied Production-based division ahead of Green Team 42 Lycée Sainte Claire and Team Moto Ain.
Pagès, who is making his EWC debut this weekend, said: “I’m still stressed but it went well. Yesterday was not so great because I put a lot of pressure on myself and I was not comfortable. There are a lot of fast riders and there’s a lot going on for my first time here but today was a better feeling, I was faster but I have a lot to learn on the bike and on the track, everything is new.”
The 88th Bol d’Or 24-hour race gets under way at 15h00 CET tomorrow (Saturday 20 September) and will be broadcast live around the world.
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