F.C.C. TSR Honda France will start the 88th Bol d’Or from 4th place on the grid thanks to significant progress in the second qualifying session and following a race preparation focused on consistency and reliability.

From 18 to 21 September, the Paul Ricard circuit is hosting the final round of the 2025 FIM EWC championship. On a legendary track, combining a wide variety of corners and, above all, a long straight that forces the bikes to be at full throttle for nearly 20 seconds, the Bol d’Or is a particularly demanding race that emphasises reliability as much as pure performance.

The F.C.C. TSR Honda France team, composed of its usual trio of riders, this time supported by Spaniard Isaac Viñales Mares as reserve rider, chose to devote the beginning of the week and the first part of the qualifying sessions to meticulous preparation for the race.

The second qualifying session, which took place in ideal conditions on this Friday from 11am, allowed the Franco-Japanese team to fully exploit the strengths of the #5 Honda CBR 1000RR-R Fireblade, significantly improving on the lap times set the previous day.

First to take to the track, French rider Alan Techer recorded his best lap in 1:51.445, placing him 2nd in his session. His compatriot Corentin Perolari achieved a fairly similar fast lap in 1:51.630, placing him 3rd in his group. Japanese rider Taiga Hada also made good progress with a time of 1:53.871. Finally, Isaac Viñales Mares contributed to the team’s efforts with a best lap time of 1:54.213.

Based on the average of the fastest times set by the two fastest riders, the team managed by Fuji San secured 4th place on the grid with an average time of 1:51.538 and scores 2 additional points for the championship.

The riders will set off for the 88th Bol d’Or on Saturday 20 September at 3pm. The race will be broadcast live and continuously on Eurosport Player, and partially on Eurosport 2 and La Chaîne L’Équipe for France. Other media will broadcast the event around the world.

Alan Techer – rider

“Since Tuesday, we’ve been working hard on our race pace. That’s where we’ll score the most points and aim for victory. Taiga is a little slower, so we’ll work as a team to help him. Yesterday in qualifying session 1, we did some race simulations and everything went very well. And today, thanks to the qualifying tyres, we took a big step forward. I did 51.4, Corentin 51.6, so we have a very good average. We are happy with our performance and very motivated for the race. We will have good weather. So now we are going to stay focused and aim for the best possible result.”

Corentin Perolari – rider

“Alan and I had a very good qualifying session. Starting 4th is very good. We’re scoring 2 points for the overall standings. And we have a very good pace for the race. So if our third rider can keep up, it could be a very good race.”

Taiga Hada – rider

“In qualifying yesterday and today, we focused more on race simulations with the race tires. I feel there’s still some pace to find, so we’ll go through the data and work on taking a step forward to really improve the pace tomorrow”