Hard fights in the first qualifying sessions at the Bol d’Or SRC Kawasaki, BMW Motorrad France 99 and SERT lead the way The real action has started at last! The first qualifying session for the Bol d’Or, first round of the 2011 Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship, had to be decided within thousandths of a second. The team SRC Kawasaki finally took the front over the edge with the very best lap of the day in 1’40.048 by Julien da Costa. With the average time of its three riders, the official Kawasaki signed a 1’40.938 time. On the provisional starting grid, they are leading the BMW Motorrad France 99 only by a few thousandths of a second – as the German bike clocked a 1’40.951 – and the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team, on which Vincent Philippe signed the second best individual lap time (1’40.098). The Monster YART Yamaha is not far behind, taking the fourth place with an average lap of 1’41.191 ahead of the Yamaha France GMT 94 Ipone in 1’41.722. Needless to say that the competition will be very tight once again for the second qualifying session tomorrow on the Magny Cours racetrack. The National Motos Honda took an excellent sixth place after this first session, opening an advantage from the Maco Racing Team Yamaha, the TT Legends Honda and the Junior Team LMS Suzuki, first Superstock bike ahead of the AM Moto Racing Compétition Suzuki and the BMW of the team Van Zon Boenig Motorsportschool Penz13. There is no more Superpole this season in the 2011 Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship. The starting grid of this 75th Bol d’Or will be determined by the average lap time of each team’s three riders. The second qualifying session will take place tomorrow late morning. FIM Endurance World Championship Bol d’Or 24-Hour Magny-Cours, France April 14, 2011 First Qualifying Session Results (average of each team’s riders’ best times): 1. Team SRC Kawasaki (Julien Da Costa/Gregor Leblanc/Olivier Four), Kaw ZX-10R, 1:40.938 2. BMW Motorrad France 99 (Sebastien Gimbert/Damian Cudlin/Erwan Nigon), BMW S1000RR, 1:40.951 3. Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (Vincent Philippe/Freddy Foray/Sakai Daisaku), Suz GSX-R1000, 1:40.971 4. Monster Yamaha YART (Igor Jerman/Steve Martin/Gwen Giabbani), Yam YZF-R1, 1:41.191 5. Yamaha France GMT 94 IPONE (David Checa/Kenny Foray/Matthieu Lagrive), Yam YZF-R1, 1:41.722 6. National Motos (Emeric Jonchiere/Lucas De Carolis/Etienne Masson), Hon CBR1000RR, 1:42.906 7. Maco Racing Team (Jason Pridmore/Gregory Junod/Gregg Black), Yam YZF-R1, 1:42.957 8. Honda TT Legends (Steve Plater/John McGuinness/Keith Amor), Hon CBR1000RR, 1:43.136 9. Junior Team Suzuki LMS (Baptiste Guittet/Julien Enjolras/Loic Napoleone), Suz GSX-R1000, 1:43.299 10. Bolliger Team Switzerland (Horst Saiger/Roman Stamm/Jerome Tangre), Kaw ZX-10R, 1:43.387 More, from a press release issued by Honda TT Legends: Honda TT Legends qualify eighth on first day at the Bol d’Or After months of preparation, the Honda TT Legends team made its debut in the 2011 FIM Endurance World Championship today by placing eighth overall in the first qualifying session of the Bol d’Or at Magny-Cours, France. TT veterans and road racing specialists John McGuinness, Steve Plater and Keith Amor each put in 30-minute stints on the Honda Fireblade, resulting in an average lap time of 1’43.136 eighth fastest in a field of 53 teams. Crucially for Sunday’s 24-hour race, all three riders are within one second of each other on the timesheets. Reserve rider Cameron Donald also took part in qualifying, although his lap times are not counted in the final average. The team will now take part in a night practice session this evening before the final qualifying session tomorrow afternoon. The race will begin at 3pm on Saturday 16 April. Follow @HondaTTLegends on Twitter for real-time updates. John McGuinness I was hoping to be a bit faster in qualifying but at the end of they day, we bought the bike home safe at a reasonable pace. It’s been a very busy day and we’ve definitely learned a lot. We’ve got a second qualifying session tomorrow and we may be able to ease up the grid a bit not that it will make too much difference to the race but as a racer you always want to be better! I’ll keep my head down, do my best and see what happens. Steve Plater Qualifying has gone quite well. I had a hiccup and tipped off at the end of free practice, which gave the guys a lot of work to do before the session but they did a great job. I went out first in qualifying, got in to a groove, managed to get a couple of fast laps in and we ended up with some quite respectable times. I’m pretty happy overall. Keith Amor Qualifying was not too bad today. I’ve made some improvements and learned a thing or two about riding the bike a bit differently to improve my lap times. Bearing in mind the length of time we’ve been doing this and how long the team has been together, we’ve not done a bad job. Neil Tuxworth, team manager The first day of qualifying has gone well for the team. We’ve ended in eighth position but it’s not really about lap times, it’s more about settings for the bike and making sure all the riders are performing correctly. Keith in particular made excellent progress today which means we now have just a one second spread between the riders this is ideal for the race as it means all three riders can substitute one another if need be. Our aim was to be in the top 15 in qualifying so we’re well within that and we still have another session to go tomorrow. In a 24-hour race, grid position isn’t everything and to be honest I would rather start a little way down to stay comfortable and safe in the first few laps.