Pierre Ragues and Signatech-Alpine have put in a sublime and faultless performance in today’s three hours of Hungaroring, completely dominating the event to take a first class victory. The result marks Pierre Ragues’ first win of the season and the return of the Alpine brand to the top step of an endurance podium for the first time since the 1978 Le Mans 24 Hours.

 

Both Ragues and his team-mate Nelson Panciatici were a cut above the rest of the field all afternoon as they took the competitive A450 race car, shod with Michelin tyres, to victory with an incredible 38 second advantage over the second placed car. 

 

The win cements the performance of the team and the car this season which has seen them take one fourth place (Silverstone) and two second places (Imola and Red Bull Ring) in this year’s European Le Mans Series championship, to move up into joint first place in the standings with one race remaining at Paul Ricard in two weeks’ time, which promises to be a spectacular showdown.

 

Pierre demonstrated the pace of the car around the tight Hungaroring track in Friday practice as the team took to the top of the timesheets in both sessions. The difficult wet weather conditions made for a tough qualifying session this morning but Panciatici kept his head and took a fine third place from where Pierre Ragues started the three hour race at 16.00 local time. 

 

Ragues completed some supreme opening laps on a damp track making his way up into second place on the second lap before taking the lead with some outstanding overtaking skill into the fourth lap. From there, it was a prodigious display as Ragues built up an 18 second lead after ten laps and extending that to an incredible one minute in his first stint. As the track continued to gradually improve, Pierre had extended the lead to one full lap as he handed over to Panciatici.

 

The weather threatened to play a part in the closing stages as some rain began to form but it did not transpire and the Signatech-Alpine looked calm and comfortable right up to the chequered flag to celebrate a memorable and historic victory, with notable thanks to Pierre’s outstanding drive.

 

Pierre Ragues commented: “Words cannot do justice to how special it felt to be standing on top of the podium today and to celebrate the first victory for Signatech-Alpine this season, and the first win for Alpine since 1978. It was a fantastic race and I am so proud to be part of this result. I am so happy with my own performance and I have been very quick all weekend. We have worked so hard all season and showed the competitiveness of the A450 all season, so after our recent second places it is amazing to make that all important step up to the top step. For me, Nelson, Signatech-Alpine and my own sponsors Group Auto, this is a tremendous result. The weather played its part this morning in qualifying but Nelson achieved a good third place and from there we were able to make the most of the car even on a damp track at the start of the race. I made up positions quickly and enjoyed putting in some nice overtaking manoeuvres to take the lead. From there, we just kept our focus and concentrated on the job in hand, setting fastest laps and not making any mistakes, drawing also from our pre-race work in the Ellip6 simulator. The team has performed faultlessly, as it always does, and this result is one that we will all share and remember for a long time.”