Pierre Ragues and the Larbre Competition team finished the 6 Hours of the Nürburgring in a fighting fourth position but were elevated to third following a post-race exclusion for one of its competitors.

 

The result secures the team’s third podium position of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship, and maintains their third place in the championship standings. 

 

Pierre was once again among the quickest drivers in the hotly contested GTE-Am category today, as he briefly led the class after a string of impressive laps and outstanding pace in the #50 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R. 

 

The team’s race was adversely affected by a number of “Full Course Yellow” periods that prevented them from capitalising on their pace. 

 

The German round of the Championship saw mixed weather conditions over the three-day event but Larbre Competition enjoyed a trouble-free weekend and did all they could to fight at the front of GTE-Am.

 

Pierre got Friday’s opening practice session off to a positive start despite a red flag forcing organisers to prolong the session time. The team amassed 37 laps and finished in second place. Work on car set-up and tyre evaluation continued in the afternoon session with an additional 37 laps added to the tally.

 

Saturday’s start was delayed due to foggy conditions. When the session eventually got underway, it was on a drying track with some remnants of rain hanging in the Eifel air. 22 additional laps helped the team finalise its qualifying preparations. Pierre’s team-mates Paolo Ruberti and Yutaka Yamagishi were on driving duties and the team lined up for the 6 Hours of Nürburgring fifth place in class.  

 

Paolo started the race for the team and held position before a revised strategy saw Pierre take to the C7.R at just after the one-hour mark. It was already clear that the GTE-Am battle would be intense. Pierre put in one of the stints of the race to move up to third with 4h30 remaining. He then moved into second and put in a superb overtake to take the lead just as a Full Course Yellow was called. 

 

Yamagishi took over and initially maintained the lead but dropped to fourth as the battle intensified, despite putting up a good fight. Pierre got back behind the wheel with 2h44 to go, and once again went quickest in class. Still competing for the podium, Pierre handed over to Paolo for the final hour, but the gap to third place was insurmountable and the team – despite a perfect race – had to take fourth position. It was only post-race that the team was given the reward of moving into the final podium position after the second placed KCMG Porsche was disqualified for a race infringement.