Pierre Ragues has had a solid start to the 2013 European Le Mans Series at the Silverstone Circuit today as he battled to fourth place with the 3 hour race ending 40 minutes early due to the heavy rain. The early end to the race came after a lengthy safety car period in the difficult wet conditions. 

It was evident from the first laps of the weekend in mixed weather conditions on Friday that the Signatech-Alpine team would be contenders for the leading positions around the Silverstone track, with Pierre setting competitive lap times in Friday practice.

His team-mate Nelson Panciatici was on qualifying duties this weekend and qualified the Alpine A450 third on the grid in this morning’s dry session. The start of the race proved more complicated, however, with the resumption of rain forcing drivers to make an early switch for wet weather tyres.

Panciatici was able to retain third place at the start of the race on intermediate tyres and moved up to second when the leader of the race went into the gravel. Unfortunately, a spin for the #36 car at the 45-minute mark lost the team 30 seconds of time and, when Pierre took over on full wet Michelin tyres, he was on the cusp of the podium positions.

Shortly before the halfway mark of the race, Pierre took to the gravel losing 90 seconds of time but still placing him in the top five. He soon moved up to fourth when the safety car was brought out to control the race in the increasingly difficult wet conditions. With Pierre holding station in fourth place, at the time the red flag was shown to end the race early, the Frenchman was unable to mount a challenge for the podium. Nonetheless, it was a positive points-scoring result for Ragues and the Signatech-Alpine squad.

Pierre Ragues said: “Generally, I am pleased with this weekend’s race and proving that we are capable of fighting for podium positions this season even if the rain significantly affected the race. The conditions have been tough this weekend and we have had to take care in finding the balance between competitive lap times and caution on the slippery track. We had a few issues, both Nelson and I, but overall we kept calm and were still in the top four when the safety car was brought out. The conditions were really tricky and everyone was struggling so we couldn’t avoid a safety car phase, even if for such a prolonged period of time, but it was disappointing that the wet track ended the race early. Even so, it is the first race of the season for the Signatech-Alpine partnership and for the Alpine A450 car with Michelin tyres, so there are a lot of encouraging things to take away from Silverstone. We can build on this further for the next race at Imola and I am thankful to the Signatech-Alpine team for their hard work this weekend. I am also grateful for the support of my partners Group Auto Union, as we hope to develop further as the 2013 season progresses.”