Petit Le Mans: Rebellion beats ALMS regulars to pole
Neel Jani put Rebellion's Lola-Toyota on Petit Le Mans pole as the team made its American Le Mans Series return
The World Endurance Championship's top privateer LMP1 team beat the ALMS points-leading Pickett HPD to pole by 0.340 seconds after a tough battle between Jani and Pickett's Lucas Luhr.
Dyson duo Guy Smith and Chris Dyson, who are chasing Luhr and Klaus Graf for the ALMS title, will start third.
The Dyson pair are joined by Steven Kane for Petit, while Romain Dumas steps in with Luhr and Graf.
European guests also led the way in LMP2, as OAK's Olivier Pla upstaged ALMS title combatants Conquest and Level 5.
Conquest's Martin Plowman held provisional pole for a spell before fellow Morgan driver Pla eased ahead. Marino Franchitti put Scott Tucker and Christophe Bouchut's #055 Level 5 HPD third in the expanded LMP2 field.
The Nissan-powered DeltaWing was successfully repaired following its practice crash and qualified 10th overall in Gunnar Jeanette's hands, 0.8s off the LMP2 pace.
GT featured Extreme Speed's Ferraris leading the way in a qualifying one-two. Guy Cosmo and factory regular Toni Vilander were just 0.05s apart as they beat the Corvettes, BMWs and Porsches. The SRT Viper impressed in sixth.
LMPC qualifying came to a curious end when Kyle Marcelli grabbed pole in the Merchant Services car then parked with an electrical problem - which he managed to rectify just as the red flag came out for his car to be retrieved. The stoppage prevented any attempts to depose the #8 car at the head of the class field.
Alex Job's Leh Keen took GTC pole ahead of Green Hornet driver Damien Faulkner.
Pos Cl Drivers Team/Car Time 1. P1 Belicchi/Jani/Prost Rebellion Lola-Toyota 1m09.089s 2. P1 Luhr/Graf/Dumas Pickett HPD 1m09.428s 3. P1 Dyson/Smith/Kane Dyson Lola-Mazda 1m10.176s 4. P1 Burgess/Patterson/McMurry Dyson Lola-Mazda 1m11.811s 5. P2 Nicolet/Baguette/Pla OAK Morgan-Nissan 1m12.046s 6. P2 Plowman/Heinemeier Hansson/Lux Conquest Morgan-Nissan 1m12.048s 7. P2 Tucker/Franchitti/Franchitti Level 5 HPD 1m12.236s 8. P2 Hartley/Hughes/Firth Murphy ORECA-Nissan 1m12.382s 9. P2 Brundle/Buncombe/Kimber-Smith Greaves Zytek-Nissan 1m12.524s 10. P2 Tucker/Bouchut/Diaz Level 5 HPD 1m12.890s 11. UNC Ordonez/Jeannette Highcroft DeltaWing-Nissan 1m12.850s 12. P2 Beche/Thiriet/Tinseau TDS ORECA-Nissan 1m12.944s 13. P2 Dempsey/Foster/Cameron Dempsey Lola-Judd 1m13.214s 14. PC Marcelli/Downs/Ducote Merchant FLM 1m14.099s 15. PC Bennett/Braun/Gonzalez CORE FLM 1m14.145s 16. PC Richard/Ende/Lewis Dempsey FLM 1m14.268s 17. PC Popow/Dalziel/Wilkins CORE FLM 1m14.433s 18. PC Junqueira/Drissi/Vera RSR FLM 1m14.561s 19. PC Junco/Dobson/Julian PR1 Mathiasen FLM 1m14.940s 20. GT Brown/Cosmo/Lazzaro Extreme Speed Ferrari 1m18.677s 21. GT Sharp/van Overbeek/Vilander Extreme Speed Ferrari 1m18.729s 22. GT Muller/Auberlen/Summerton RLL BMW 1m18.972s 23. GT Gavin/Milner/Westbrook Corvette 1m19.065s 24. GT Magnussen/Garcia/Taylor Corvette 1m19.086s 25. GT Goossens/Kendall/Bomarito SRT Viper 1m19.145s 26. GT Bergmeister/Long/Pilet Flying Lizard Porsche 1m19.225s 27. GT Muller/Alzen/Summerton RLL BMW 1m19.261s 28. GT Neiman/Holzer/Tandy Flying Lizard Porsche 1m19.524s 29. GT Wittmer/Farnbacher/Hunter-Reay SRT Viper 1m19.839s 30. GT Miller/Maassen/Lietz Miller Porsche 1m20.388s 31. GTE-Am Pons/Narac/Armindo Imsa Porsche 1m20.733s 32. GT Henzler/Sellers/Ragginger Falken Porsche 1m20.760s 33. GT Sweedler/Bell/Mowlem Alex Job Lotus 1m21.510s 34. GTE-AM Perazzini/Cioci/Griffin AF Ferrari 1m22.630s 35. GTC MacNeil/Keen/von Moltke Alex Job Porsche 1m24.060s 36. GTC LeSaffre/Faulkner/Wong Green Hornet Porsche 1m24.251s 37. GTC Di Guida/Pumpelly/Canache TRG Porsche 1m24.566s 38. GTC Cisneros/Farnbacher/Giermaziak NGT Porsche 1m24.833s 39. GTC Cumming/Valiante/Johnston JDX Porsche 1m25.058s 40. GTC Benitez/Bullitt/Segal NGT Porsche 1m25.385s 41. GTC Davis/Avenatti/Calvert-Jones Competition Porsche 1m25.456s 42. GTC Collard/Gutierrez/Hedlund TRG Porsche 1m25.641s
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