And...... without official proof who is to say he really did do that time ?
The shootout is the best bit, it is not and never has been about the absolute fastest, it is about the competition to see who is the fastest within each class.
For instance this year it was far more entertaining and interesting watching the Euro Nascar's go up and see who could be fastest out of those identical cars, rather than watch any of the stuff that was much faster than them. Personally the Fiat S76 was the best car in the shootout every day.
Although it was brilliant to see Petter show Oli how it should be done, with smoothness and skill rather than stupid unnecessary exuberance.
Any one can run up the hill except current F1 teams, they can only do demo runs.
I was speaking to a few others who help organise it all on the Saturday, and said what if some billionaire bought last years Mercedes and members of the team to set it up and run it, under a private owners banner, would that be allowed, and they said yes of course, same as anyone can buy an old F1 and run it up the hill if they wish, as many have done over the years.
The only issue arises, where F1 cars of only a few years old are still owned by the teams, and do not get sold off, especially modern tech ones that are almost impossible for private people to buy and run as they need so many people and laptops etc to run them.