Jani gives Rebellion Ricard LMS pole
Date published : 02 Apr 2011 - 13:13:14
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 1m51.744s10. LMP2 Rosier/Luco/Basso Extreme Limite Norma-Judd 1m52.158s11. LMP1 Mucke/Primat/Turner Aston Martin 1m52.267s12. LMP2 Gates/Garofall/Philipps RLR MG Lola 1m53.414s13. LMP2 Leventis/Watts/Kane Strakka HPD 1m53.582s14. FLM Moro/Marroc/Shanqi Hope ORECA 1m53.659s15. FLM Julian/Zugel/Petersen Genoa ORECA 1m54.044s16. FLM Hartshorne/Keating/Keen Neil Garner ORECA 1m54.081s17. FLM Schultis/Simon/JSchell Pegasus ORECA 1m55.829s18. FLM Rodrigues/Menahem/Misslin JMB ORECA 1m56.806s19. GTE P Fisichella/Bruni AF Corse Ferrari 1m58.522s20. GTE P Enge/Muller/Nygaard Young Driver Aston Martin 1m58.773s21. GTE P Bell/Walker JMW Ferrari 1m59.119s22. GTE P Melo/Vilander AF Corse Ferrari 1m59.144s23. GTE P Farnbacher/Simonsen Farnbacher Ferrari 1m59.244s24. GTE P Goossens/Holzer Prospeed Porsche 1m59.244s25. GTE A Armindo/Narac IMSA Performance Porsche 1m59.370s26. GTE P Lieb/Lietz Felbermayr-Proton Porsche 1m59.455s27. GTE P Pilet/Henzler IMSA Performance Porsche 1m59.457s28. GTE P Dolan/Hancock Jota Aston Martin 2m00.336s29. GTE A Ried/Felbermayr/Felbermayr Felbermayr-Proton Porsche 2m00.354s30. GTE A Perazzini/Cioci/Lemeret AF Corse Ferrari 2m00.470s31. GTE A Broniszewski/Peter Kessel Ferrari 2m00.698s32. GTE A Christodoulou/Hummel/Quaife CRS Ferrari 2m01.137s33. GTE A Kauffman/Aguas/Ciro AF Corse Ferrari 2m01.691s34. LMP2 Erdos/Newton/Collins RML HPD
