Larbre Competition driver Pierre Ragues has continued to thrive around the demanding Circuit de la Sarthe at Le Mans on Sunday morning as the Frenchman helped to return the team to the top 20 overall. 

 

Ragues, who had already enjoyed strong double and quadruple stints earlier in the race, returned to the cockpit of the #50 Morgan Judd LMP2 taking over from Japanese racer Keiko Ihara at 6.40am local time. 

 

Following a stop for fuel, Michelin tyres and the driver change, Ragues embarked on this triple stint with the aim of returning the team to the top 20 overall after a puncture in the early hours of Sunday dropped them back down the order. 

 

An incident with a GT car required a Slow Zone to be deployed midway through his opening stint, with a short Safety Car period also needed to allow repairs to some fencing. 

 

Pierre was soon back up to speed when the green flag was shown, setting some impressive pace once again with lap times not far off the team’s best lap of the race. He handed over to Ricky Taylor shortly before 9am local time with the #50 in 19th overall and 11th in the tight, competitive LMP2 class.

 

Pierre said: “It’s been another good triple stint for me this morning. It’s a challenge to drive when the sun is coming up but there is also nothing as special as seeing the start of the new day. I felt competitive again in the Morgan Judd and had good speed and rhythm. We had some slow zone and safety car periods in the first stint but once the course was green again we could get back up to speed and make some progress. We have six hours left to continue in this way.”