Le Mans 24 Hours - Positive Test Day

As the only opportunity to test on the unique Le Mans 24 Hours circuit, the test day was of paramount importance ahead of the race next week. The team’s six drivers, Nick Heidfeld, Neel Jani, Nicolas Prost in the Lola-Toyota #12 and Andrea Belicchi, Harold Primat and Jeroen Bleekemeolen at the wheel of the #13 completed scheduled work programme, thus carrying out important development work with the new Le Mans aero kit and gathering valuable data for the engineers in the team, TMG and Michelin.

Andrea Belicchi, Harold Primat and Jeroen Bleekemolen aboard Lola-Toyota #13 set the fastest laptime of the petrol/privateer field in the afternoon session, as the car was third fastest in the morning session.

The sister Lola-Toyota car #12 ended the day with the second fastest laptime in the morning session and the third fastest in the afternoon.

The REBELLION Racing team were satisfied with the Le Mans test day. All the latest developments pleased the drivers and the engineers were reassured about the potential of the car and its line of progression for the forthcoming Le Mans 24 Hours race.

REBELLION Racing will compete at the 80th edition of Le Mans 24 Hours aiming for a podium finish whilst battling for top Privateer and petrol powered honours, repeating last year’s and recent successes.

REBELLION Racing is heading to Le Mans 24 Hours, next week, as the leader of the FIA World Endurance Championship LMP1 Trophy for best Privateer Team with 37 points and a 1-2 finish at the last round, the 6 Hours of Spa.

REBELLION Racing finished as the best petrol powered car in last year edition of Le Mans 24 Hours, a result that helped the team to finish the season as the best Privateer in the team classification behind Peugeot’s and Audi’s factory teams.

Bart Hayden, REBELLION Racing Team Manager: "The latest improvements on the cars are all pointing in the right direction and should help us improve our performance at the 24 Hours race. We will focus on our races and work hard to target the best position overall, we consider repeating 2011 result as a minimum target.

One of our main competitor, the #15 OAK Racing car endured a severe shunt during morning session. We are saddened that Guillaume Moreau has suffered an injury in his back. Our thoughts are with him, his family and the whole OAK Racing team. We wish him a full recovery and hope to see him back as soon as possible."

Andrea Belicchi, Lola-Toyota #13 :

«I am pleased with our work today but it was not easy for me to be 100% focused. The hearthquake in Italy have touched particularly my homeplace, and a lot of my family and friends have been involved. My whole house has been destroyed. That's why I'm living a difficult time. When I am behind the wheel I completly forget these problems and I'm happy to do my job and trying to improve the car for the race. I'm going to take a few days off and next week, I'll be 100% focused to the race !»

Nick Heidfeld, Lola-Toyota #12 :

My last, and only one, participation at Le Mans was in 1999. It is far away from now. As I had no memories from the track, for me it is as if I was beginning from scratch. This session was important for me beacause I had to run 10 laps to qualify for the race... and to learn a bit more about the track. That I did in the morning. My first feeling is that driving on Le Mans track is more fun that I remembered ! We had less down force on the car than for the previous races of the season. I had not as much traffic as I experienced on the other tracks that are shorter. And I had some good clear laps, too. So I had good conditions to drive on this so particular track... and to appreciate it ! I now can’t wait to be back next week for the main event ! »