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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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