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Neel Jani puts Rebellion on pole for Le Mans Series finale at Estoril

Rebellion driver Neel Jani took pole position for tomorrow's Le Mans Series decider at Estoril

The Swiss left his run late and jumped straight to the top of the times aboard Rebellion's lead Lola-Toyota coupe. His 1m30.118s lap around the former home of the Portuguese Grand Prix put him two tenths clear of Julien Jousse's Pescarolo-Judd.

Jani, who shares with Nicolas Prost, said: "We felt very confident after this morning [when he was fastest in final free practice] and knew we could do it if we got a free lap. I made a mistake, quite a big one actually, but it was still enough."

Jani said he and Prost will do their utmost to win tomorrow's six-hour race, even though team-mates Andrea Belicchi and Jean-Christophe Boullion only trail the championship-leading Pescarolo trio of Jousse, Emmanuel Collard and Christophe Tinseau by one point. Asked if team orders might come into play, he said: "I guess we will have to see in the last hour of the race, but we will be trying to win."

Tom Kimber-Smith topped the times in LMP2, the point for pole giving himself and Greaves Motorsport team-mate Karim Ojjeh the class title. They are now 15 points clear at the top of the points, which means they would win the title on countback if either of their rivals for the crown win the race and tie with them on points.

Kimber-Smith, who shares the Greaves Zytek-Nissan with Ojjeh and Olivier Lombard, said: "Everyone knew we would be coming here to get pole. Quite a few people have been saying that we haven't shown any pace this year, but today we proved them wrong."

Rob Bell took his first GT pole for JMW Motorsport since last year's Silverstone LMS round. The Briton edged out fellow Ferrari 458 driver Gianmaria Bruni (AF Corse) by less than a tenth of a second.

Pos  Cl     Drivers                             Team/Car                     Time
 1.  LMP1   Jani/Prost                          Rebellion Lola-Toyota        1m30.118s
 2.  LMP1   Collard/Tinseau/Jousse              Pescarolo-Judd               1m30.317s
 3.  LMP1   Belicchi/Boullion                   Rebellion Lola-Toyota        1m30.592s
 4.  LMP2   Ojjeh/Lombard/Kimber-Smith          Greaves Zytek-Nissan         1m31.800s
 5.  LMP2   Leventis/Watts/Kane                 Strakka HPD                  1m32.072s
 6.  LMP2   Beche/Thiriet/Firth                 TDS ORECA-Nissan             1m32.347s
 7.  LMP2   Kraihamer/Ebbesvik                  Boutsen Energy ORECA-Nissan  1m32.695s
 8.  LMP2   Frey/Meichtry/Hirschi               Race Performance ORECA-Judd  1m33.286s
 9.  LMP2   Perez Companc/Russo/Kaffer          Pecom Lola-Judd              1m33.525s
10.  LMP2   Gates/Garofall/Hughes               RLR MG Lola-Judd             1m34.066s
11.  LMP2   Rosier/Mello-Breyner/Mello-Breyner  Extreme Limite Norma-Judd    1m34.168s
12.  FLM    Hartshorne/Graves/Kapadia           Neil Garner                  1m36.044s
13.  FLM    Kutemann/Marroc                     JMB FLM                      1m36.480s
14.  FLM    Schultis/Simon/Schell               Pegasus FLM                  1m37.474s
15.  GTE-P  Bell/Walker                         JMW Ferrari                  1m39.176s
16.  GTE-P  Fisichella/Bruni                    AF Corse Ferrari             1m39.233s
17.  GTE-P  Lieb/Lietz                          Felbermayr-Proton Porsche    1m39.374s
18.  GTE-P  Goossens/Holzer                     Prospeed Porsche             1m39.526s
19.  GTE-P  Farnbacher/Simonsen                 Farnbacher Ferrari           1m39.749s
20.  GTE-P  Pilet/Henzler                       IMSA Performance Porsche     1m39.964s
21.  GTE-A  Armindo/Narac                       IMSA Performance Porsche     1m40.014s
22.  GTE-P  Melo/Vilander                       AF Corse Ferrari             1m40.390s
23.  GTE-P  Dolan/Hancock                       Jota Aston Martin            1m40.417s
24.  GTE-A  Perazzini/Cioci/Lemeret             AF Corse Ferrari             1m40.558s
25.  GTE-P  Ayari/Rodrigues/Ballay              JMB Ferrari                  1m40.746s
26.  GTE-A  Hummel/Christodoulou/Quaife         CRS Ferrari                  1m40.777s
27.  GTE-A  Ried/Felbermayr                     Felbermayr-Proton Porsche    1m42.107s

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