Bol d’Or, BMW’s sensational pole: ready for the 24 Hours that will decide the 2026 FIM EWC title?

The 2026 Endurance World Championship wraps up these days with the Bol d'Or: here’s who took pole position in all categories.

Setting aside the “exception” of 2025 (Yoshimura SERT Motul’s Suzuki), the BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team picks up where it left off in 2023–2024. The M 1000 RR #37 is on pole at the Bol d'Or, earning the five points awarded to the polesitter. In the other classes, Team Étoile will start from pole position in the Superstock category, while the High Side April Moto Louit team will start from first in Production. The grand season finale of the FIM EWC kicks off Saturday at 3:00 p.m.

Already on top after the first day of practice, BMW number 37 confirmed its superiority on Friday in the second qualifying session, held in better track conditions. With an average of the two best laps of 1'50.837, the squad of Markus Reiterberger, Steven Odendaal, Michael van der Mark and Jérémy Guarnoni will start from pole position in the final race of the 2026 FIM Endurance World Championship.

Van der Mark, making his debut at the Le Castellet circuit, set the crew’s fastest lap in 1'50.744, after already establishing a new outright track record (1'50.704) in Thursday morning’s free practice. Pole position brings five points to the team led by Werner Daemen, trimming the gap to 14 points behind Yamaha number 1 in the overall standings.

Behind them, the gaps are minimal. AutoRace Ube Racing Team (BMW number 76) with Naomichi Uramoto, Sylvain Guintoli and Kenny Foray takes second place by 0.608 seconds, just three thousandths ahead of the Yoshimura SERT Motul Suzuki number 12 (Gregg Black, Etienne Masson, Dan Linfoot), third and earning three points. Rounding out the Top 5 are the BMW number 6 of ERC Endurance, powered by laps from Loris Baz and Marcel Schrötter, and the Honda number 5 of F.C.C. TSR Honda France.

Championship leader YART Yamaha Official EWC Team will start from seventh. Marvin Fritz, Karel Hanika and Leandro Mercado did not score qualifying points and will have to defend their advantage over the distance.

In the Superstock category, Team Étoile dominated the class. Tenth overall with an average of 1'52.531, the BMW #25 of Hikari Okubo, Motoharu Ito, Kaito Toba and Rei Toshima leads the Honda #77 of Wojcik Racing Team by three tenths, eleventh overall, followed by the BMW #38 of Champion-Hert Powered by MRP.

In the Production category, the Kawasaki #33 of the High Side April Moto Louit team (Adrian Parassol, Bader Benlekehal, Alex Sarrabayrouse, Dylan Buisson) set the best class time in 1'57.400, 0.135 seconds ahead of Audemar Motoclub Gemenos and Legacy Competition.

The 56 registered crews will return to the track on Saturday morning for warm-up, before the start of the 89th edition of the Bol d'Or, scheduled for 3:00 p.m., for the 24 hours that will decide the fate of the championship.

-> Full standings on fimewc.com

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