Pierre Ragues and the NewBlood by Morand Racing team have taken a dominant victory in this afternoon’s 4 Hours of Paul Ricard in a truly sensational European Le Mans Series race on the southern French circuit.

 

The result marks Pierre and the team’s maiden ELMS win of 2014, in only their second collaboration of the season. Alongside his team-mates Gary Hirsch and Christian Klien, Pierre has set the 5.791km track alight today as the #43 Morgan Judd BMW LMP2 vehicle performed superbly against strong competition.

 

For Pierre, the Paul Ricard event is very much a home race and it recalls the celebrations from last year in which he took the 2013 European Le Mans Series title with Signatech-Alpine, who finished as runners-up today.

 

Pierre had been among the quickest men on the track during his free practice runs on Saturday, already demonstrating the performance potential of the NewBlood by Morand Racing squad this weekend. With 73 laps under its belt on Saturday, the team was in confident mood heading into Sunday morning qualifying.

 

Christian Klien was on qualifying duties and used hard tyres to great effect to finish third on the grid for the four hour race. Pierre was handed the job of starting the race for the team and he didn’t disappoint. Using his vast endurance experience and his recent confidence behind the wheel of the #43 car, Pierre maintained third place in the opening laps but by lap 24, as he pitted for fuel, Pierre assumed the lead of the race. 

 

Pierre drove supremely well to extract all the speed from the car and driving a faultless double stint to build up a 20 second lead by the time Gary Hirsch took over for his sole stint. At the halfway point, the team had a 12 second lead and as Klien took over for the final double stint, there was a fierce battle for the lead, as pit stop strategy came into play. Klien was involved in a fantastic battle and eventually regained the lead in style, where he stayed until the chequered flag.

 

The resulting debut win of the 2014 season for the NewBlood by Morand Racing team underscored the strength of the technical package and the potency of the driver line-up. It was the fourth different winner in the four ELMS rounds of the season so far and boosts NewBlood by Morand Racing up to third in the championship standing on 50 points. With one round of the season remaining at Estoril in October, the team is still a potential contender for the title.

 

Pierre Ragues commented: “That was a fantastic day of racing and a tremendous result for the whole team. The strategy today was spot on and it is down to the work of the team that we have been able to fight for this win. I am delighted and I was pleased with my own double stint at the start of the race, which really set us up nicely. Starting from third place, we knew we were in good shape and the car was just superb to drive. The team has been competitive all season and we knew we were capable of a strong result here. I’m over the moon we have been able to take the win – the team’s first of the year, my first ELMS win of 2014 and at the same venue where I took the title last year. I am so thankful to the team and to Christian and Gary for everything this weekend. Also, to my personal partners Group Auto and Sparco with whom I share this result, as well as to everyone at Ellip6, whose simulators are so valuable in my race preparations. It was hot out there, so I was grateful for the comfort and cooling from my Sparco EXTREMA RS-10 overall. We will now hope to take this performance onto the final race of the season in Portugal.”