The Honda TT Legends team will start the 2013 24 Heures Moto at Le Mans in the top ten following the second qualifying session at the legendary French circuit today.

Michael Rutter, Simon Andrews, John McGuinness and Michael Dunlop took to the 4.185km track for 20-minutes each. Rutter and Dunlop bettered yesterday’s times, both posting a 1.39:2 lap, however a small issue with set up meant that Andrews and McGuinness were unable to improve. The new combined average time of 1.39:707 places the team ninth in the starting line-up ahead of tomorrow’s 24-hour race.

The team and riders remain upbeat ahead of the race and are determined to bring home a strong result. The final three-man line-up will be decided overnight and announced following tomorrow’s morning warm-up, before the race begins at 15.00 CET.

Neil Tuxworth – team manager

In general, qualifying has gone very well for us here and although we’ve had one or two minor problems that we need to address before the race, we’re confident that we can deal with them effectively. The performance of all the riders has been of a good level with very little difference in their lap times. We will now decide not only who will be in the final three-rider line up for the race but also the order in which they will run and who will be the lead rider to start the race. It’s particularly difficult as any three are capable of bringing home a good result.

John McGuinness

It didn’t go as well as it could have today but as we always say with the 24-hour races, your starting position is not overly important. What is important is consistency and having three riders all lapping at similar times, which is exactly what we have. On top of that we have a good feeling and we’re all hungry for it, so I just hope we get the result I believe we deserve.

Michael Rutter

I was pretty happy with my performance today as I managed to go a bit quicker. The weather is improving and I think we have a laid the groundwork to get a strong result in the race. All we can do now is try our best and see what tomorrow brings.

Simon Andrews

After watching Rutter’s improvement and with the sun coming out, I was looking forward to getting on the bike and putting a good lap together to improve our time. Unfortunately, we had a small issue that meant I had to switch to the second bike mid-session and we weren’t able to break out of the mid-pack. Either way, top ten is fine for EWC as it’s a long race and anything can happen.

Michael Dunlop

It’s not been perfect today but we have definitely made progress. It’s all about compromise and that means you may not always be 100% happy but if it’s working for everyone it’s good. After being here all week we’re ready to get going and get the race started.

Championship standings

1 Suzuki Endurance Racing Team 84 pts SUZUKI
2 Monster Energy Yamaha-YART 71 pts YAMAHA
3 Yamaha France GMT94 Michelin Yamalube 60 pts YAMAHA
4 Team R2CL 44 pts SUZUKI
5 Bolliger Team Switzerland 8 44 pts KAWASAKI
6 SRC Kawasaki 40 pts KAWASAKI
7 MuSashi RT HARC-PRO 35 pts HONDA
8 Maco Racing Team 30 pts YAMAHA
9 Yoshimura Suzuki Racing Team 29 pts SUZUKI
10 BMW Motorrad France Thevent 99 29 pts BMW
11 Team Kagayama 25 pts SUZUKI
12 Flembo Leader Team 21 pts KAWASAKI
13 Team Space Moto 37 20 pts SUZUKI
14 National Motos 19 pts HONDA
15 Honda Team Asia 16 pts HONDA
16 Honda TT Legends 16 pts HONDA
17 RAC 41 Yam Avenue Ipone 15 pts YAMAHA
18 TOHO Racing with MORIWAKI 14 pts HONDA
19 Honda Kumamoto Racing 12 pts HONDA
20 Team 18 Sapours Pompiers 11 pts KAWASAKI
21 FMA Assurances 11 pts HONDA
22 SPE Samurai 9 pts SUZUKI
23 EVA RT TEST TYPE-01 SynergyForceTRICKSTAR 9 pts KAWASAKI
24 Team Dunlop Motors Events 8 pts SUZUKI
25 RS-ITOH&ASIA 8 pts KAWASAKI
26 Honda Hamamatsu ESCARGOT&PGR&H-TEC(E) 7 pts HONDA
27 Confia Lunasol Japan 6 pts SUZUKI
28 Team38 PS-K 5 pts KAWASAKI
29 TEAMJP Dogfighter Yamaha 4 pts YAMAHA
30 Honda Ryokuyoukai Racing 3 pts HONDA
31 Moto Map Supply 2 pts SUZUKI
32 Iwata Racing Family 1 pts YAMAHA
33 YamashinaKawasaki & BusinessRalliart 0 pts KAWASAKI
34 Winner Z-Tech 0 pts SUZUKI
35 Team Vital Spirit 0 pts BMW
36 Team Sugai Racing Japan 0 pts DUCATI
37 Team Little Wing 0 pts BMW
38 Team KARBAR cafe Racing from SHIGA 0 pts KAWASAKI
39 Team Etching Factory 0 pts YAMAHA
40 SNDheater Human-Revo Drag Roadway ACtech 0 pts SUZUKI
41 RS Garage Harada Himeji 0 pts KAWASAKI
42 Motorrad Toyota Nagasaka Racing 0 pts BMW
43 Motobox Kremer Racing by Shell Advance 0 pts SUZUKI
44 MOTOBUM-Ishigaki Island BEEF & TUNA 0 pts HONDA
45 LA BELLEZZA SPEED&KUMAMON 0 pts DUCATI
46 KTM Hamaguchi Bakuon Racing 0 pts KTM
47 IMT Satoracing 0 pts YAMAHA
48 Honda Suzuka Racing Team 0 pts HONDA
49 Honda Sayama Racing&Hamamatsu&H-TEC (E) 0 pts HONDA
50 Honda Koyokai DREAM Racing Team 0 pts HONDA
51 Honda EG Racing 0 pts HONDA
52 Honda DREAM Takasaki B'WISE R.T 0 pts HONDA
53 Honda DREAM RT Sakurai Honda 0 pts HONDA
54 Hamamatsu Team Titan 0 pts SUZUKI
55 Hamamatsu 8H Team 0 pts YAMAHA
56 HINOSEIKI-Iwaki&T2 with Autoboy 0 pts SUZUKI
57 Dogfish O-TEC Suzuka 0 pts HONDA
58 DOGHOUSE & Higuchi Legal Office 0 pts SUZUKI
59 Banner Racing H.K.C 0 pts DUCATI
60 B-Square Racing & Osaka SAM-RT

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