French Le Mans racer Pierre Ragues has been forced to retire from the 83rd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans at the halfway distance of the classic endurance race.

 

Ragues, together with his TEAM SARD MORAND team-mates Oliver Webb and Zoel Amberg had been enjoying a competitive battle for the top five in the LMP2 class for much of the race up to that point but their #43 Morgan Evo Sard experienced a oil pressure sensor failure.

 

Pierre had enjoyed a competitive stint in the late evening, taking over from Webb and Amberg while chasing down the top five. His speed helped to keep the team in the hunt and he took over fifth place before pitting at 22.00 to hand over the reins to Webb.

 

The team’s pit stops had been among the quickest in the pitlane on Saturday evening, which certainly helped keen them in touch. Webb completed a double stint and handed over once more to Amberg who made his way up to fourth in class. Unfortunately, the driver reported misfire problems so, at his scheduled stop for fuel, the team opted to change the electronic engine box on the car which lost one minute of time. 

 

Ten minutes later, the car was brought back in for some checks after experiencing sensor gremlins. The team checked the car thoroughly and Pierre took charge with 12:30 left on the clock. It became clear that something was wrong when Pierre reported smoke from the engine. The start of a fire meant that he had to stop at Arnage from where the car was unrecoverable.   

 

It was a frustrating end to a positive week at Le Mans for Pierre and TEAM SARD Morand, who were hoping to build on their podium from the 6 Hours of Spa. Pierre, who was backed by Drivista.com and Sparco, and the team with their title sponsor Franck Muller, will find positives from this disappointing result as they prepare for the rest of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

 

Pierre said: “I am completely devastated. We were running so strongly and then all of a sudden, we were hit by a few technical gremlins. Oliver, Zoel and myself had worked well as a team with the performance of the #43 car to get ourselves into a strong fourth place but just after midnight Zoel reported misfire from the engine, so the car was brought in for a new electronic box. Shortly after, the car came back in for some checks. It was decided that I take over for my next run but soon after leaving the pit there was smoke from the engine, caused by an oil pressure sensor failure, and then fire, so I had to stop at Arnage. There was nothing we could do from there, and our race was over. I was really looking forward to driving at night and I was sure we could have taken the fight even to the podium. But this is Le Mans where everything is unpredictable, so we must learn from the experience and move on. It will take some time for the disappointment to go away. I would like to thank the team for a great week, and to our sponsor Franck Muller. Also to my personal backers Drivista.com and Sparco – I’m just sorry we couldn’t share a better result this weekend.”