Pierre Ragues and the Larbre Competition team will begin the 84th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours from sixth in class after wet weather curtailed Thursday’s sessions at Circuit de la Sarthe.

 

Rain affected both of the two-hour sessions today with the final qualifying practice red-flagged for almost one hour due to the treacherous track conditions. 

 

The weather meant that most teams and drivers were unable to improve upon their times from Wednesday’s qualifying session. A 30-minute window of dry conditions at the start of QP2 allowed some representative running but it wasn’t long before the rain arrived.

 

Pierre and Larbre have set a total of 62 laps of the 13.629km La Sarthe over the course of the Le Mans week so far, as Pierre prepares for his tenth running of the prestigious event. For the Larbre Competition, this year’s event will mark the 24th participation at the highlight of the endurance calendar.

 

The #50 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R was on course for a top-three result in the opening qualifying session on Wednesday, with Pierre setting a competitive pace on his runs. The team is therefore confident in the car’s pace ahead of this weekend’s 24-hour race, despite the limited running in practice. 

 

After WEC podiums at Silverstone and Spa so far this season, and with double points up for grabs this weekend, Pierre will be aiming to score a top-three result in his first Le Mans as a GTE-AM racer. 

 

Pierre said: “It’s a shame we couldn’t get any more laps in today but the conditions were just too bad, particularly in the second session. The red flag shortened the available track time but I was able to get four laps in at the end to get a feeling for our Corvette C7.R in the wet. The conditions were not ideal, it was OK to drive in the wet but there were some fog patches to contend with. I’d like to say thank you to all the fans that braved the weather to support us – even in the rain- it was just a shame we couldn’t have more track time. We know our Corvette C7.R quite well and we’ve seen some promising pace so far here; there’s no reason for concern. We must now hope for more consistent and dry conditions in the race itself, so we can try to reclaim our pace-setting performance from the official test day. Starting from sixth in class means we have to have a clean start to the race, and then settle quickly into a rhythm. I am determined to have a good run for my tenth Le Mans, for myself and my partners GroupAuto, Sparco and Ellip6 – as well as Larbre and Corvette.”