[15-06-2016]
SOLID START FOR PIERRE AND LARBRE AS RAIN HAMPERS OPENING DAY
 French endurance star Pierre Ragues completed the first laps of his tenth participation in the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans at Circuit de la Sarthe on Wednesday.
After the official test day earlier this month – and days of meticulous preparations, including the traditional scrutineering at Place de la République in central Le Mans on Sunday - Pierre and the Larbre Competition team took to the track for their opening laps of race week today.
The schedule allowed for four hours of free practice before the first of three two-hour qualifying sessions, which will determine the starting grid for the 84th running of Le Mans.
Ahead of his milestone tenth Le Mans, Pierre was keen to get some track time in the #50 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, alongside his team-mates for this event – Jean-Philippe Belloc and Yutaka Yamagishi.
Pierre has already taken two podiums in the competitive GTE-Am class this season – after top-three finishes in Silverstone and Spa in the FIA World Endurance Championship so far this season. He will be aiming for a repeat performance in the biggest event of the year – Le Mans!
Rain affected preparations in the opening free practice session with most teams and drivers finding it tricky to accomplish their programmes. For Pierre and Larbre, the focus was on set-up and tyre evaluation but the intermittent rain and occasional red flags made it difficult to complete the run plan.
The team completed 26 laps of the 13.629km Circuit de la Sarthe in practice, building towards the first qualifying session of the weekend – held in night-time conditions. Pierre was on qualifying duties in the session and set a highly encouraging fifth fastest time in class despite traffic and slow zones hampering his early laps. He was third for much of QP1 but did not go out again at the end of the session.
A further 18 laps in total allowed Pierre, as well as Jean-Philippe and Yutaka, to complete the five required night laps and for the team to lay foundations for the coming days, particularly tomorrow’s two qualifying sessions.
Pierre said: “I’m thrilled to be back here for race week at Le Mans – and for the tenth time, which makes every moment of this year’s event so special for me. We could already soak up the atmosphere from the fans during the traditional scrutineering on Sunday, and then again in the autograph session on Tuesday. But getting onto the track today is what it’s all about. I was pleased with the first day, despite the intermittent rain! We stuck to our programme but the changing conditions in practice meant that we had some items left incomplete. Still, we approached the first qualifying session in a methodical way and could set promising pace. The Corvette is always great to drive but it’s especially enjoyable on this amazing track. We are provisionally in fifth, which was a good lap considering I had some slow zones and traffic to contend with. Let’s hope the weather the stays drier for the rest of this weekend so we can show our true pace. Qualifying is not the absolute target and I am convinced we have the package to fight for the podium in the race.”
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