Jani Tops FP3 for Rebellion

Rebellion Racing topped the timesheets during Friday morning’s third and final free practice session for the Total Six Hours of Spa.

Neel Jani set the fastest lap behind the wheel of the No. 1 Rebellion R13 Gibson with a time of 1:57.120 that dipped 0.819 seconds under the second-placed Toyota TS050 Hybrid.

The former Porsche LMP1 star’s attempt was 1.7 seconds faster than the previous best effort from a non-hybrid.

However, it was still a second shy of the overall best of the weekend so far, set by Mike Conway during FP2.

Rebellion entered the second half of the incident-free 60-minute run with a one-two, but an improvement by Conway slotted the No. 7 Toyota between the pair.

Thomas Laurent settled for third-quickest in the sister R13 with a time of 1:58.124, while fourth was Stephane Sarrazin in the best of the SMP Racing BR Engineering BR1 AERs, ahead of the sister Toyota.

As was the case in both of Thursday’s free practice sessions, neither of the Ginetta G60-LT-P1 Mecachromes turned in more than a single installation lap.

It is not currently known if the pair of Manor-entered cars will return to the track for Friday afternoon qualifying, amid growing speculation that the team is faced with funding issues.

Fastest in LMP2 was the DragonSpeed Oreca 07 Gibson for the third consecutive session.

Pastor Maldonado clocked a time of 2:02.281 to go two tenths up on fellow Formula One expat Jean-Eric Vergne in the No. 26 G-Drive Racing Oreca.

Ford Leads GTE-Pro Again

In GTE-Pro, Andy Priaulx led the way for the Ford Chip Ganassi Racing squad as BMW Team MTEK finished the morning second.

Priaulx’s 2:13.693 effort was six tenths quicker than Tom Blomqvist in the best of the M8s, and also the fastest lap seen so far in the category.

Matt Campbell headed a Proton Competition one-two in GTE-Am as the newly introduced Porsche customer 911 paced its third straight session.

Qualifying is set to get underway with the 25-minute GTE session at 3 p.m. local time.

RESULTS: Free Practice 3