The Honda TT Legends team has completed its final pre-season test ahead of the 2013 Endurance World Championship. The two-day event took place at Magny Cours in France, the same circuit that will host the first race of the year, the Bol d’Or 24-hour.

The test enabled the team to continue the crucial development work that began at Albacete two weeks ago and also provided John McGuinness, Simon Andrews and latest EWC recruit Michael Dunlop with another chance to get to grips with the 2013-spec CBR1000RR race machine. Michael Rutter is still in recovery from a broken leg and did not attend.

Cold and damp weather, red flags and oil on the track hindered progress on the first day of testing on Wednesday, but yesterday saw a slight improvement with all three riders completing a decent amount of laps and the crew working hard to get the bike ready to race. The Honda TT Legends will return to Magny Cours for the Bol d’Or 24-hour on 20/21 April.

Glen Richards – race manager

Obviously the weather has held us back a bit but we’ve made some good progress all the same. The crew have done a lot of work on the chassis and electronics, and although there were no official times, by our own timing the riders are all within half a second of each other which is a good place to be at this stage. We’ve got a few things to try when we come back here for the race and overall we’re happy.

John McGuinness

We’re frustrated with the weather but it’s not been too bad. Wednesday was hit and miss but yesterday was a bit better. The boys worked really hard to get through the programme of work and we’re heading in the right direction. We’re all at similar speeds and I think we’re ready for action.

Simon Andrews

It’s been a good couple days aside from the weather. The guys have really grafted and we’ve done a lot of set up work over lots of laps. We’re working on getting faster out laps and just tightening things up ready for the race in April.

Michael Dunlop

The weather’s been pretty terrible again so it’s been a bit tough but we’ve made the most of the time we’ve had on track and made progress with the set-up of the bike. The team element of endurance is new to me but we’re all on a similar pace so that’s a good thing for when we’re back here for the race in a few weeks’ time.

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