Pierre Ragues has put in a sensational performance during this weekend’s Rally Mont Blanc Morzine as he put his recent rally experience to good use to finish second in the S2000 class. The French driving star was fastest in his class in five stages of the ten stage rally and fought for S2000 victory over both days of rally action. 

 

The Mont Blanc Morzine rally is part of the French Rally Championship, so Pierre’s performance with the Deslandes Sport team has really helped to establish him as a genuine rally talent.

 

Pierre was on fine form from the outset of the event in his Skoda Fabia S2000 and pushed hard on all stages. He established the lead of S2000 on Friday morning but he lost confidence with a long brake pedal during the long third stage (27.60km), which pushed him down into second place.

 

He worked hard to reduce the gap but the final stage of Friday saw an incident with another S2000 competitor who crashed. Pierre slowed down in the stage and lost 40 seconds of time as he made his way cautiously to the end. The stage was not cancelled, but Pierre was still pleased to finish the opening day second in class. 

 

A bright start this morning saw Pierre set the quickest S2000 time in SS6 and SS7 to reduce the gap to 15 seconds in the fight for S2000 victory. He was on strong form and clearly the standout performer in his class.  

 

Unfortunately, Pierre experienced trouble in SS8 as he had a 360 degree spin mid-stage which lost him 15 valuable seconds. A further loss of time in SS9 further distanced him from the lead as he hit a large stone, which was not on the pace notes, and damaged his front left tow road and wheel. He finished the stage and tried to fix the problem himself but the damage was too severe and he lost three minutes to guarantee making it to the end of the rally.

 

All in all, though, the rally has been a real breakthrough for Pierre as he demonstrated competitive pace and was a genuine threat in the rally, not just in S2000. It is the culmination of his recent rally experience, giving him confidence to push and to show his potential when everything comes together.

 

Pierre said: “This has been a very positive rally for me and I am really grateful to the Deslandes team and my backers Group Auto and Sparco for their fantastic support this weekend. I have really felt comfortable and confident to push hard. Of course, when you push hard you can also make some mistakes but I am thrilled I have shown my ability to mix it with the front runners. I was enjoying the fight for S2000 victory but the overall performance shows a lot more than just the end result. We had some issues today that lost us some time and we were hopeful of taking the win – right to the end. Even so, I made big steps this weekend and I take nothing but positives away from this great event.”