Pierre Ragues has just taken to the La Sarthe circuit for his first stints at the wheel of the Signatech-Alpine A450 after a dramatic start to the Le Mans 24 Hours.

 

Pierre’s team-mate Nelson Panciatici got off to a fantastic start, taking the A450 into the top five of the LMP2 category in the opening lap. An unfortunate safety car period soon followed after a tragic accident on the second lap, which required the safety car to remain out for much of the final hour.

 

Panciatici suffered a rear tyre puncture caused by debris on the track which necessitated a trip back to the pits for a tyre change. He lost one third of a lap in the process to end up in 32nd place overall after 1h15. The Frenchman embarked on a fight-back and made his way up to 13th in LMP2 by the two hour mark when he pitted for fuel. 

 

Having taken the Signature-Alpine A450 into the top ten in LMP2, he handed over to Tristan Gommendy who resumed on intermediate tyres in a bid to battle the tricky track conditions. It was a gamble that didn’t quite pay off so he switched back to slicks and was 12th in category after three hours. Unfortunately, he made a trip through the gravel which required an unscheduled trip to the pits for checks after gravel became lodged in the alternator belt. The mechanics worked wonders to get the car back out quickly but the #36 car was down in 49th place. 

 

A further incident five hours into the race after Tertre Rouge, the cause for which the team will have to investigate, damaged the rear end of the #36 car, which saw Gommendy make a slow trip back to the pits. The Signatech-Alpine crew worked incredibly fast to change the rear end of car and the rear left suspension to minimise the time lost with just 15 minutes in the garage for repairs. Pierre Ragues is now on track, looking to begin a tough fight back up the order but with three-quarters of the race left to run.

 

Pierre Ragues said: “It has been a really hard start to the 24 Hours with some very difficult conditions and terrible news. From our team performance point of view, we have had a few issues that have required unscheduled time in the pits for repairs. The mechanics have performed exceptionally this evening to minimise our time delay. We are unfortunately down the classification but we have 18 hours left to fight back and we never give up – especially at Le Mans and when we are representing the Signatech-Alpine reputation.”