Pierre Ragues is hopeful of a strong performance in this weekend’s 80^th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours with G-Drive by Signatech-Nissan after the team added more valuable running in today’s two qualifying sessions and qualified a promising third in LMP2. 

The team’s strategy was for Pierre’s team-mate Nelson Panciatici to qualify the #26 Oreca 03 car for the race, which he will then also start. A quick lap time in the first of today’s two qualifying sessions, a 3m39.1s, was good enough for the team to secure the 3rd spot overall in LMP2, but the team will be hoping to make even more progress in the race.

Pierre completed some unrepresentative laps in the first of today’s sessions following a deliberate plan set out by the team. The evening session was curtailed as a result of an off-track excursion by Panciatici which required the team to carry out investigations on the car. The team will nonetheless resume final preparations on Saturday morning in warm-up before the 24 hour race gets underway on Saturday afternoon.

Pierre said: “As a team, we set a strategy for Nelson to qualify the car today and, in keeping with the rules, for him to start the race on Saturday afternoon. I knew we had a good pace from my runs on Wednesday and Nelson’s lap in today’s first session was good. Our place on the grid shows our competitiveness and we can be confident with our package. Race pace and reliability will of course be key. We had to validate some parts on the car early on, so my first run was purely for validation purposes, rather than times. We have the final warm-up on Saturday to finalise our race settings. Before that, I am looking forward to the famous drivers’ parade in town tomorrow which is a fantastic event and one of the highlights of the weekend.”