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Jani gives Rebellion Ricard LMS pole

Rebellion Racing driver Neel Jani took pole position for the opening round of the Le Mans Series at Paul Ricard

The Swiss driver set a best time of 1m46.783s in Rebellion's lead Lola-Toyota LMP1 coupe to edge out former LMS champion Emmanuel Collard, driving for the re-formed Pescarolo team. Jani was less than three tenths of a second ahead of Collard in the Judd-powered Pescarolo and a further two tenths ahead of the ASM Zytek driven by Olivier Pla.

Jani, who is paired with Nicolas Prost, said: "It is a good start, but it is very close. The Pescarolo and the Zytek are close to us, closer than I expected."

The Aston Martin AMR-One, which is making its race debut at Paul Ricard this weekend, ended up only 11th quickest in the hands of Stefan Mucke. The German's time of 1m52.267s left him behind six LMP2 entrants.

TDS Racing claimed P2 honours with Mathias Beche. His time of 1m48.928s in the French team's ORECA-Nissan was nearly a second clear of Dominik Kraihamer in Boutsen Energy Racing's similar car.

Gianmaria Bruni took pole in the GTE class (formerly GT2) for the AF Corse Ferrari team. The Italian's time of 1m58.522s in the new 458 Italia was two tenths quicker than Tomas Enge aboard Young Driver AMR's Aston Martin Vantage GT2.

Pos  Cl     Drivers                       Team/Car                     Time
 1.  LMP1   Jani/Prost                    Rebellion Lola-Toyota        1m46.783s
 2.  LMP1   Collard/Tinseau/Jousse        Pescarolo-Judd               1m47.025s
 3.  LMP1   Amaral/Pla                    Quifel-ASM Zytek             1m47.231s
 4.  LMP1   Belicchi/Boullion             Rebellion Lola-Toyota        1m48.491s
 5.  LMP2   Beche/Thiriet/Firth           TDS ORECA-Nissan             1m48.928s
 6.  LMP2   Kraihamer/de Crem             Boutsen Energy ORECA-Nissan  1m49.692s
 7.  LMP2   Ojjeh/Chalandon/Kimber-Smith  Greaves Zytek-Nissan         1m50.008s
 8.  LMP2   Frey/Meichtry/Ebbesvik        Race Performance ORECA-Judd  1m50.356s
 9.  LMP2   Perez Companc/Russo/Kaffer    Pecom Lola-Judd              1m51.744s
10.  LMP2   Rosier/Luco/Basso             Extreme Limite Norma-Judd    1m52.158s
11.  LMP1   Mucke/Primat/Turner           Aston Martin                 1m52.267s
12.  LMP2   Gates/Garofall/Philipps       RLR MG Lola                  1m53.414s
13.  LMP2   Leventis/Watts/Kane           Strakka HPD                  1m53.582s
14.  FLM    Moro/Marroc/Shanqi            Hope ORECA                   1m53.659s
15.  FLM    Julian/Zugel/Petersen         Genoa ORECA                  1m54.044s
16.  FLM    Hartshorne/Keating/Keen       Neil Garner ORECA            1m54.081s
17.  FLM    Schultis/Simon/JSchell        Pegasus ORECA                1m55.829s
18.  FLM    Rodrigues/Menahem/Misslin     JMB ORECA                    1m56.806s
19.  GTE P  Fisichella/Bruni              AF Corse Ferrari             1m58.522s
20.  GTE P  Enge/Muller/Nygaard           Young Driver Aston Martin    1m58.773s
21.  GTE P  Bell/Walker                   JMW Ferrari                  1m59.119s
22.  GTE P  Melo/Vilander                 AF Corse Ferrari             1m59.144s
23.  GTE P  Farnbacher/Simonsen           Farnbacher Ferrari           1m59.244s
24.  GTE P  Goossens/Holzer               Prospeed Porsche             1m59.244s
25.  GTE A  Armindo/Narac                 IMSA Performance Porsche     1m59.370s
26.  GTE P  Lieb/Lietz                    Felbermayr-Proton Porsche    1m59.455s
27.  GTE P  Pilet/Henzler                 IMSA Performance Porsche     1m59.457s
28.  GTE P  Dolan/Hancock                 Jota Aston Martin            2m00.336s
29.  GTE A  Ried/Felbermayr/Felbermayr    Felbermayr-Proton Porsche    2m00.354s
30.  GTE A  Perazzini/Cioci/Lemeret       AF Corse Ferrari             2m00.470s
31.  GTE A  Broniszewski/Peter            Kessel Ferrari               2m00.698s
32.  GTE A  Christodoulou/Hummel/Quaife   CRS Ferrari                  2m01.137s
33.  GTE A  Kauffman/Aguas/Ciro           AF Corse Ferrari             2m01.691s
34.  LMP2   Erdos/Newton/Collins          RML HPD

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