French endurance star Pierre Ragues has started the 83rd 24 Hours of Le Mans with a trouble-free day of running in mixed conditions at the Circuit de la Sarthe today.  

 

Ragues, who is joining TEAM SARD Morand for his ninth participation at the prestigious Le Mans, completed plenty of laps as the team ended the day 9th in class and 22nd overall after the first qualifying practice.

 

In this afternoon’s practice session, teams were greeted with similar conditions to those faced at the recent official test with light to heavy rain falling around the 13.629km Circuit de la Sarthe. Track conditions remained tricky throughout the four-hour practice, with some red flag interruptions, but dried up fully in time for the evening qualifying session, the first of three sessions to decide the grid for Saturday’s 24-hour race.

 

Pierre shared driving duties with his team-mates Oliver Webb and Zoel Amberg to ensure that all drivers completed enough laps in the sessions to re-acclimatise to the circuit, and then the required laps to qualify for the race itself.  

 

In the first session, using a combination of Dunlop tyres, the team continued important tyre evaluation and set-up work with the #43 Morgan Evo SARD. However, the evening session allowed the team to move onto dry weather running despite the shortened time due to a lengthy red flag.

 

Ragues put his Le Mans expertise to good use by helping the team, which is title sponsored by Franck Muller, to rack up 34 laps in the afternoon session and 19 during first qualifying. Despite not going for outright lap times, the team finished inside the top ten of the competitive LMP2 class and with further improvements likely on Thursday, when teams and drivers will have a further two qualifying sessions.

 

Ragues, who is sponsored by Drivista.com and Sparco for this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, commented: “It was nice to be back on track in the #43 car today even if the weather conditions disrupted a bit the plan for the practice session. The conditions were similar to the test with a mix of rain, damp and drying track, which at least allowed us to work more on our Dunlop tyres. We were finally able to get some dry running at the end of the afternoon and in the qualifying session, even with the red flag. We focused on getting our required laps to qualify the cars, rather than the lap time, but we hope we will have the opportunity to make more gains tomorrow. The weather continues to be unpredictable – typical Le Mans – but I hope it stays dry for the next two sessions. The car feels good, I am working well with the team and my team-mates Oliver and Zoel. It’s a pleasure to drive here once again and I think we can continue our strong progress when we return tomorrow.”