LE MANS SERIES - 8 HOURS OF LE CASTELLET
Jean-Christophe Boullion, the driver that qualified the #13 Lola-Rebellion in 5th placestarted the race for his new team. Despite being careful at the start, Jean-Christophe was pushed off the track by the Oreca No. 6 in the first few hundred meters.However, he managed to recover quickly to stay with the leading group of cars.
After the first hour of racing the Lola-Rebellion #13 had made its way up into a strongthird place. After a double-stint that passed without any other concern, Jean-Christophe handed over to Guy Smith who also drove a double stint.
Halfway through the race, the third driver in the #13 car, Andrea Belicchi took his turnto put in a double stint behind the wheel of the Lola-Rebellion. At that stage of therace, Andrea Belicchi, Jean-Christophe Boullion and Guy Smith were still on theprovisional podium.
The second part of the race was trouble free and the Lola-Rebellion #13 went on tosecure the first trophy for REBELLION Racing.
The team’s sister car the Lola-Rebellion #12 had a more difficult race. Neel Jani hada strong start, his first in Le Mans Series. In the first half hour of the race, whilstrunning in a strong fifth position, the #12 suffered broken suspension after being hitby a GT car, this damage also causing a puncture of the left rear tyre which forcedthe car to stop for repairs. Despite prompt attention from the REBELLION Racingcrew, the car lost 18 minutes in the garage.
Neel Jani was then unlucky to be given a Stop & Go penalty of 3 minutes for spinningthe wheels when leaving the pits. The team complained to the race director becausemarks on the ground were not from the sizes of the Lola-Rebellion tyres, but to noavail.
Nicolas Prost took over from Neel Jani after his double stint and began a strongcomeback with lap times faster than the main leaders at that stage of the race. Athalfway, the Lola-Rebellion #12 was down in 13th place.
In the second part of the race, Neel and Nicolas continued their strong drive to earn11th place overall and 7th in the LMP1 class.
Jean-Christophe Boullion: "This weekend is very satisfying for me. It is a faultlessrace week-end that ends on a good note with a place on the podium. Starting a newadventure after a relationship of 9 years in a team is not easy. Weekends like this willaccelerate the integration and help the understanding with the team. This can onlyhelp us achieve our goals more quickly. "
Andrea Belicchi: "The team was really perfect both during the pit stops and during therace. The car is much more consistent than the one we had last year. We have alsogained speed. I would like to thank the mechanics who worked late into the nightfrom Friday to Saturday to allow us to finish the weekend on the podium ."
Guy Smith : "I am very pleased with our podium especially since we experienced adifficult start to the weekend. The whole team has worked hard to compensate forthese problems and the result is there. I am glad I joined REBELLION Racing, theirmechanics and my teammates are a great group of people. All this is very good forthe future, so I look forward to Le Mans! "
Neel Jani: "We can not be satisfied with the classification we had today in the #12car. I do not know what caused the failure of the suspension. However, we did agood race including some very quick laps. I do not understand the decision on ourpenalty. Luckily we were not, then fighting for a podium. Too bad we could not dobetter because two Lola-Rebellion on the podium would have been even better!Anyway, I congratulate my teammates. Making a podium at the start of the season isfantastic for them and good for the whole team! "
Nicolas Prost: "Our result in the #12 is disappointing because the car was very quickduring the race. It's a shame to start the season on a race like this. I look foward tothe rest of the championship where we can aim for good results. "
Bart Hayden, Team Manager: "This podium is a very positive result for theREBELLION Racing team. We have shown that our Lola-Rebellions are competitiveand that the technical and sporting choices that we made over the closed seasonwere good. I want to thank the whole team for the work they put in over this winterand especially throughout this weekend. It is a very good result for REBELLION, ourprimary partner.
Technically, it was a nearly trouble-free race for both cars and the new Michelin tyreshelped us to achieve this podium result.
