Pierre Ragues has today ended a positive and generally trouble-free two day test session at the Paul Ricard circuit in France where he conducted set-up work with the recently unveiled Signatech-Alpine LMP2 car.  

The team, who will be competing in all rounds of the European Le Mans Series in 2013, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, will be responsible for the return of the Alpine brand to endurance racing for 35 years and Pierre will be an integral part of the team structure.

Alongside Nelson Panciatici and Tristan Gommendy, Pierre completed an impressive number of laps over the two days working on the set-up of the new car around the 5.791km track, as well as intensive tyre testing with Michelin.

The team registered the quickest time of all teams over the two days, completing 1,459km in total. The team used the test as a valuable opportunity to get the Signatech-Alpine LMP2 car in competitive shape ahead of the season opener at Silverstone in just two weeks from now.

Pierre Ragues said: “We have had a very positive two days of testing here at Paul Ricard, working as a team with all drivers together for the first time driving the recently unveiled Signatech-Alpine LMP2 car. It was good to have Nelson, Tristan and myself all running and we completed 167 laps on Tuesday and 86 laps earlier today, working on establishing the car performance ahead of Silverstone. We worked intensively with Michelin on tyres, looking at their entire range of endurance tyres for Silverstone and it was a very satisfactory test.  It is a pleasure to be looking towards the ELMS season in a positive frame of mind and with the fantastic Signatech-Alpine team all working together with our partners, including my personal backers Group Auto Union, towards the same objective of winning races this season. Silverstone is on the horizon and we can’t wait to go racing.”