Pierre Ragues and the Larbre Competition team were unable to translate a competitive performance into a podium finish in today’s 6 Hours of Fuji, the seventh round of the FIA World Endurance Championship. 

 

Despite battling strongly for a top-three finish, Pierre was forced to bring the #50 Chevrolet Corvette C7 into the garage after a problem with the gearbox flange with just 1h23 remaining on the clock.

 

The Larbre Competition mechanics worked exceptionally hard to repair the car in order to complete the necessary number of laps to secure a classified finish – and 8 important points, which help Larbre Competition retain fourth place in the Championship

 

It was still a disappointing race result for the team after an excellent display all weekend around the 4.563km Fuji Speedway in Japan.

 

From the opening free practice session on Friday, the team showed its potential with third position in the closely fought GTE-Am class. Amassing 84 laps over the day, Pierre and the team moved into second by the end of the total three hours of practice. 

 

Pierre’s team mates Ricky Taylor and home star Yutaka Yamagishi were on qualifying duties for this round, and their lap average was good enough for third on the GTE-Am grid.

 

Under sunny skies, Taylor made a great start to the six-hour race moving up to second position on the opening lap. A fierce fight emerged for third place, with Larbre Competition properly in the mix. After 35 laps, he handed over to Yutaka at the start of the second hour. The Japanese driver had a trouble-free run before Pierre took to the cockpit for his first stint with four hours of the race remaining.

 

Pierre resumed the race in fourth place but got right on the pace, putting in an outstanding overtake to reclaim third. He handed back to Yamagishi just after the halfway mark. The team lost around ten seconds during the pit stop due to wheel gun gremlins, but third place was still in sight.

 

Pierre’s second phase in the car, with two hours remaining, was impressive. He was consistently among the quickest in class, and was continually closing the gap to third place. Unfortunately, it was just as he was within ten seconds of the podium when he was forced to pit unexpectedly. 

 

Pierre Ragues commented: “It is such a shame that we haven’t been able to secure the podium that we know we were capable of this weekend. The car felt strong and the team has worked so hard, I feel we deserved more. I personally felt very comfortable in the Corvette, and was able to get into a strong rhythm. We were hunting down third place with a series of competitive laps, some of the quickest in class, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. I felt something at the rear of the car and had no choice but to bring it back to the garage. The team worked fantastically to repair the issue with the gearbox flange to get me back on track for the final half an hour. It was an important decision because it allowed us to be classified and pick up eight very useful championship points, which help us keep fourth in the standings. Fuji is such a great track, and it’s a fantastic race weekend, so we’ll take the positives away from here and look to fight back in China. As ever, thanks to my partners GroupAuto, Sparco and Ellip6 for their unwavering support, and to everyone in the team for their hard work this week.”