The Honda TT Legends began the second round of the 2011 Endurance World Championship at the Circuito Albacete in Spain  by securing fifth position overall in the first qualifying session.

Steve Plater took to the track first and proceeded to set the pace for the majority of his 30-minute stint, posting the fastest lap numerous times before ending in second overall. John McGuinness followed and secured some solid laps before an unfortunate tumble put an end to his track time.

For the eight-hour race tomorrow, the team will employ a two-rider strategy with Plater and McGuinness, however third rider Keith Amor is still required to take part in qualifying. He ended the session with a solid performance having not ridden in any practice sessions beforehand.

The combined average time of 1:32.654 puts the Honda TT Legends in a provisional fifth place on the grid. The final positions will be decided in the second qualifying tomorrow morning before the race commences at 6pm. Follow @HondaTTLegends on Twitter for real-time updates.

Neil Tuxworth, team manager

We had an eventful qualifying session this afternoon but it was a good session. Steve was incredibly quick and led most of the first session, ending up second fastest. He increased his time considerably from this morning’s free practice. John went out and unfortunately had a very small crash, which upset things a bit but he still ended up sixth in his session overall. Keith did an exceptional job considering he hasn’t had any practice at all this weekend. He went immediately into qualifying and was on very good times, a lot quicker than the majority of the riders here. Fifth is an excellent position to be in at this time and it is two places higher than we qualified at the first event. We still have another session to go but I’m very happy.

John McGuinness

I am really enjoying it out there. In the first free practice Steve and I were on a similar sort of pace, we tested here and we’re faster than we were then. The development on the bike at the Bol d’Or is paying dividends. Steve did an amazing time, he was bang on the money and I got a bit excited! I had my qualifying tyre on, got some clear track and unfortunately put the bike upside down. I rode it back and luckily there was no major damage to the bike or me – just a dint in my pride. I haven’t fallen for over a year so that felt a bit strange. I’m excited about night practice tonight and we’ll have another stab tomorrow morning. We’re competitive and we’ll be trying.

Steve Plater

I’m happy enough with my pace and more importantly I’ve achieved almost my best times on the race tyre. Lap times are really good, we’ve made a step forward with the bike set-up and we have tried a couple of changes which worked with the race tyre and I’m quite confident that if the weather is good tomorrow we can be on the pace.

Keith Amor

Going out without any practice is not ideal but all in all I quite enjoyed it. It’s quite tight and twisty here, not really ideal for a superbike, but I think I did about ten fast laps so I’m not too disappointed. Hopefully after night practice tonight I’ll be able to improve and the boys will be in a good position to start tomorrow evening.

Russell Benney, race manager

Technically, it’s been a great afternoon. We’ve achieved a fuel consumption that allows us to do an hour and this means that for the race we are on a seven-stop strategy. This is critical as we need to avoid that eighth stop. If you stop eight times in an eight-hour race you’ve got a problem. The other great technical achievement this afternoon is we that we have found a superb tyre combination. That’s a very good foundation for the race.

Endurance World Championship round two – Albacete

Qualifying one – results

1 MONSTER YAMAHA - YART 1:31.306 2 BMW MOTORRAD FRANCE 99 1:31.620 3 YAMAHA FRANCE GMT 94 IPON 1:31.641 4 S.E.R.T. 1:32.149 5 HONDA TT LEGENDS 1:32.654 7 VAN-ZON BOENIG MOTORSPORT 1:33.535 8 BMW MAS 1:33.695 9 YMES FOLCH ENDURANCE 1:33.897 10 NATIONAL MOTOS 1:34.039