Swiss squad Rebellion Racing may be making their Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca debut this weekend but the Toyota-powered Lola team are certainly proving to be fast learners.

Neel Jani set the pace in today’s test session at the Monterey circuit, stopping the clocks at 1 minute, 14.700 seconds to be nearly a second faster than the Muscle Milk Racing HPD entry.

“Today’s free practice was, for us, just to get to know everything and to find a set up for the car since we’ve never run here before,” Jani said.

“We were P1 which was a nice surprise, but we all know after Long Beach that it doesn’t mean anything because in the race everything can happen.

“We still have a lot of work ahead of us with the car but it felt great to be with this car on this track. It’s a very quick track and it’s very nice to drive with our car here.”

Rebellion won Petit Le Mans at the end of 2012 and set the pole at the most recent round on the streets of Long Beach. Jani will again drive this weekend with ex-Formula 1 ace, Nick Heidfeld.

“We walked the circuit yesterday,” Heidfeld said.

“Normally it’s the not the most fun thing to do, but here it was fun because the track looks very amazing.

“This track is new for all of us in every way, but for sure we’re happy that we have more sessions Friday. We definitely can improve the balance more and more as we go along.”

The Dyson Racing Mazda Lola was third fastest – amazingly only .003 of a second behind the Muscle Milk car.

Official practice for this weekend’s American Le Mans Monterey Presented by Patrón event kicks off tomorrow at 11:00am (local time).