[22-03-2016]
PIERRE RAGUES READY FOR 2016 WEC SEASON OPENER AT PAUL RICARD PROLOGUE
 French race ace and European endurance Champion Pierre Ragues will get his 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship underway this weekend as Circuit Paul Ricard plays host to the traditional start-of-season Prologue.
Ragues, who has contested LMP1 and LMP2 categories in previous endurance campaigns, including a memorable title-winning ELMS championship in 2013, will move into the competitive GTE-AM class for the complete 2016 season.
He joins Larbre Competition for his tenth season as an endurance racer, competing in the #50 Chevrolet Corvette C7 alongside Japanese Yukata Yamagishi and Italian Paolo Ruberti.
The Prologue is the much heralded start of the new WEC season with teams able to get to grips with the Paul Ricard track in the south of France over five timed sessions. There will be 29 entrants into this year’s Prologue of the 32 full-time entrants, so it will be a busy Easter weekend of WEC action.
A four-hour morning and afternoon session on Friday will give the Larbre Competition team plenty of opportunity to begin set-up and acclimatisation of their Michelin-shod Corvette, while a special two-hour night session on Friday evening will give the drivers a taste of night-time driving. A further seven hours of track time will be open to teams over two sessions on Saturday.
With Pierre looking forward to an impressive tenth Le Mans 24 Hours race as part of this year’s schedule, he will be hoping to make a positive start. The debut race of the 2016 season, the 6 Hours of Silverstone in England, will take place in April.
Pierre commented: “It feels like it has been a long time coming, but here we are ready to start a full season of WEC. I am thrilled to be back with Larbre Competition and to have the honour of driving the Corvette alongside Yukata and Paolo. It promises to be an exciting season in my first GT campaign. It is also particularly poignant as my tenth anniversary in endurance racing – and it will be very special to line-up for my tenth Le Mans 24 Hours. We have some important work to do before then, and the Prologue is the starting point. I am looking forward to learning the car and the Michelin tyres in the five sessions this weekend – it will be the first step on our 2016 journey. As ever, I will have the support of my partners GroupAuto and Sparco, as well as Ellip6, throughout the season, so let’s get things off to a positive start. I can’t wait.”
PROLOGUE SCHEDULE
Friday 25 March
09:00 – 13:00 Session 1
14:00 – 18:00 Session 2
19:00 – 21:00 Session 3 (night testing)
Saturday 26 March
09:00 – 13:00 Session 4
14:00 – 17:00 Session 5
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