Pierre Ragues and the G-Drive Racing by Signatech-Nissan team once again demonstrated their ability to fight for the front-running positions in today’s 6 Hours of Shanghai. Unfortunately a late technical issue dropped the team from a strong fourth place race position to seventh at the chequered flag.

Pierre was on starting duties for the team having qualified the #26 Nissan-powered Oreca 03 on Saturday afternoon. It was a tough opening lap for the Frenchman as he negotiated traffic into the first corner and throughout the first few corners. He was forced to concede places but fought hard to make up time and get his race back on schedule.

Pierre was on an aggressive strategy by the team after qualifying on hard tyres on Saturday afternoon. The decision was made in an effort to double the tyre stints in the race but it was ultimately a gamble that didn’t pay off. Pierre was still able to drive well in his opening stints with a quick and consistent pace. He handed over to Roman Rusinov in sixth place as the team made headway through the field. Rusinov continued the charge and was up into fourth place as Nelson Panciatici took over for the final quarter of the race.

Running in fourth spot, the team was in a position to capitalise on its consistent pace and to keep pushing on the door of the podium places. Unfortunately, with less than 90 minutes of the race remaining, Panciatici was forced to pit after his front left brake disc broke. The French driver lost over four minutes of time as he made it back to the pits for the team to replace the brake disc. The result was losing out on any chance of closing the gap to the podium runners and instead dropping down to seventh in class. Nelson continued to show the team’s competitive pace right up to the chequered flag, setting an impressive best lap of 1m55.6s.

Pierre Ragues said: “It was a bit similar today to how we fared in Japan at the last race. We again showed that we are capable of podium chasing performances as we were in fourth place in class this afternoon and we were pushing on the door of the podium for much of the time. Regrettably, we experienced the problem with the brake disc. The team performed well to keep the lost time to a minimum but unfortunately it was too late in the race to reclaim the positions. I had a cautious start to the race as I had to navigate my way carefully past other cars. Initially, we lost a position but we were able to claw our way back through, which given our hard tyre strategy was quite pleasing. I felt that my pace was good and consistent in my double stint and Roman and Nelson continued our momentum – at least until Nelson was forced to pit. We might not have been able to fight for the podium today but running in fourth place always gives you that hope. Nonetheless, it was not our day today. We have had a good season with some strong performances and results. I would like to convey my thanks to the G-Drive Racing by Signatech-Nissan team and to my team-mates, as well as my personal backers Group Auto Union. The podium at Silverstone and our fourth at Le Mans were definite highlights and I think we did ourselves proud.”