Rebellion Racing tops all five sessions of Paul Ricard WEC test
Rebellion Racing topped the times in all five-sessions of the pre-season World Endurance Championship test at Paul Ricard
The Anglo-Swiss team's sole Lola-Toyota B12/60 outpaced the only other LMP1 prototype present at the two-day test. Neel Jani ended up fastest on a 1m43.521s, half a second ahead of Danny Watts in the Strakka Racing HPD ARX-03c.
Rebellion, which is fielding two cars in the opening three rounds of the WEC, was evaluating a new aero package produced by Multimatic Motorsport, which has taken over the development and the supply of parts for the Lola LMP1 and LMP2 teams.
Jani, who will drive with Nick Heidfeld and Nicolas Prost in the season opener at Silverstone on April 14, said: "We had a good test. We wanted to evaluate the new parts and we are happy with them.
"It's always good to be on top of the timing sheet, and we have topped all five sessions."
The Toyota and Audi factory teams were not present at the test, held on Friday and Saturday.
The two OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan LMP2s were fastest of the eight cars present in the secondary prototype class, Bertrand Baguette outpacing Olivier Pla by two tenths of a second.
The G-Drive/Delta-ADR squad filled the next two positions in LMP2, Antonio Pizzonia ended up fastest in the best of its ORECA-Nissan 03s.
The Brazilian was three tenths behind Baguette on the Michelin tyres the team is evaluating. A decision on whether the team will swap from Dunlops for its WEC campaign is imminent.
The new Lotus T128 LMP2 coupe developed by the German Kodewa team ran for the first time at the test.
James Rossiter set a best time a shade over two seconds slower than Baguette in the car powered by a Judd/BMW carrying the badges of Czech kart manufacturer Praga.
The GTE times were headed by Giancarlo Fisichella in the solo Pro class AF Corse Ferrari 548 Italia present.
The Italian's time of 1m58.790s was seven tenths faster than the best lap set by the new 991-shape Porsche 911 RSR set by Jorg Bergmeister.
Matt Griffin topped the GTE Am times for AF Corse.
Pos Cl Drivers Team/Car Time 1. P1 Prost/Jani Rebellion Lola-Toyota 1m43.521s 2. P1 Leventis/Watts/Kane Strakka HPD 1m44.041s 3. P2 Baguette/Gonzalez/Plowman OAK Morgan-Nissan 1m47.398s 4. P2 Pla/Brundle OAK Morgan-Nissan 1m47.589s 5. P2 Pizzonia/Graves/Gonzalez ADR-Delta ORECA-Nissan 1m47.631s 6. P2 Rusinov/Martin/Conway G-Drive/ ADR-Delta 1m48.064s 7. P2 Perez Companc/Minassian/Kaffer Pecom ORECA-Nissan 1m48.582s 8. P2 Liuzzi/Rossiter/Bouchut Lotus Lola-Lotus 1m49.444s 9. P2 Holzer/Kraihamer/Weeda/Charouz Lotus Lola-Lotus 1m50.062s 10. P2 Nicolet/Merlin/Mondolot OAK Morgan-Nissan 1m50.352s 11. GT P Fisichella/Bruni/Vilander/Kobayashi AF Ferrari 1m58.790s 12. GT A Gerber/Cioci/Griffin AF Ferrari 1m59.422s 13. GT P Bergmeister/Pilet/Bernhard Manthey Porsche 1m59.428s 14. GT A Potolicchio/Aguas/Peter/Bright 8 Star Ferrari 1m59.455s 15. GT A Goethe/Hall/Campbell-Walters Aston Martin 1m59.778s 16. GT A Narac/Bourret/Vernay Matmut Porsche 2m00.345s 17. GT A Milesi/Narac Matmut Porsche 2m00.609s 18. GT A Ried/Roda/Ruberti Proton Porsche 2m00.907s 19. GT A Bornhauser/Canal/Rees Larbre Corvette 2m01.139s 20. GT A Ried/Roda/Ruberti Proton Porsche 2m01.627s
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