Third And Fourth Rows On The Starting Grid Of The 6 Hours Of Shanghai

Neel Jani achieved the fifth fastest time in the qualifying session for the 6 Hours of Shanghai race, the eighth and last round of the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship.

In so doing, the Swiss driver placed the B12/60 Lola-Rebellion #12 as the second of the FIA WEC LMP1 privateer entrants with a lap time of 1'51''019.

Andrea Belicchi with the #13 B12/60 Lola-Toyota set the fourth fastest time of the privateer petrol field with a laptime of 1'51''394.

The four fastest LMP1 petrol cars, #22, #12, #21 and #13 were covered by less than four tenths.

Chinese driver Cong Fu Cheng, will try to achieve a strong result at the Shanghai circuit for his home race as he joins the regular duo of the Lola-Toyota #13, Andrea Belicchi and Harold Primat.

Neel Jani and Nicolas Prost will be racing to try to secure third place in the FIA World Endurance Championship drivers classification.

The start of the race will be at 11h00, Sunday 28th October.

Neel Jani - Lola-Toyota #12 : «I'm a bit disappointed not to have achieved the pole position. I had very good pace on my first lap, around seven tenths ahead, but I made an error of judgement; as there was traffic in front of me, I decided to slow down in order to have a clear second lap and secure a fast lap, but this was not the case for the next laps. I had a good time in my last lap, but it was not the fastest one. That's life ! »

Andrea Belicchi -Lola-Toyota #13 : «I had a good session. I did a good fast lap. We finished the session only three tenths behind the pole position. And four cars, #22, #12, #21 and ourselves are covered by those tenths. It is very tight. We have some setup improvements remaining for tomorrow and we'll be ready for the race. »

Bart Hayden REBELLION Racing Team Manager : «We're a bit dissapointed to miss the pole, especially as Neel was seven tenths up on the pole time when he aborted his first lap, but nonetheless, both cars set very competitive lap times and all the privateers are very close together on the grid, which should make for a good race. »