Rebellion Racing‘s FIA World Endurance Championship season ended early with its only retirement of the season at the Six Hours of Bahrain.
The trio of Nicolas Prost, Andrea Belicchi and Mathias Belche only made it 44 laps in to the race before a mechanical failure forced the only privateer LMP1 out of the race. It was one of an unusually high number of LMP1 DNFs, resulting in an LMP2 car taking the bottom step of the podium at the end of the race.
The team were confident going in to the race that they could put in a strong performance, having set a qualifying time 1.6 seconds faster than the lap time set at the 2012 running of the event.
Despite the DNF, Rebellion Racing took home the LMP1 Trophy for Privateer Teams for the second consecutive year, topped off by two overall podium results through the year at Interlagos and Fuji. The team also won the final ever round of the American Le Mans Series, taking back-to-back victories at Petit Le Mans.
“For sure, the retirement from the last WEC race of the season is a disappointing way to end what has been a great year for the team,” said Team Manager Bart Hayden.
“Bahrain was the last race for the Lola and we were wishing for a better ending. I want to thank our drivers, they drove sensibly as well as quickly; the engineers and mechanics as they have tuned and prepared the cars to the highest level all year.
“We were successful again this year, and we have all won together. We are now focused on the 2014 season and our new LMP1 car, the Rebellion R-One.”
