Pierre Ragues and Duqueine Engineering have claimed a hard-fought fourth place finish in the 4 Hours of Barcelona, the third round of the 2019 European Le Mans Series season. 

 

In a very competitive race for the team, and for Pierre who was among one of the quickest on track, fourth place wasn’t an entirely representative result as the #30 Oreca 07 had looked to be in contention for a victory fight with a good team strategy.

 

A difficult qualifying result saw Duqueine Engineering start sixth on the grid but Pierre, on starting duties, was determined to make up positions quickly. The opening hour of the four-hour race saw the Caen-born star mount an impressive challenge. 

 

Moving into the top-five after the opening three laps, Pierre then embarked on a series of outstanding overtaking manoeuvres. Demonstrating his race pace, Pierre made an audacious move at 45 minutes to take fourth and followed with an equally superb move at almost one hour to take third spot.

 

Pierre moved up to second place after one of the front-runners was handed a drive-through penalty; he was completely focused on chasing down the lead with blistering pace. 

 

Handing over to Nicolas Jamin at 1h25 into the race right on the tail of the leader, the team lost 14 seconds as they changed four tyres compared to their rivals’ two. They were, however, able to hang on to second spot as the race intensified. 

 

The issues in qualifying had left Duqueine with two tyres less than their rivals, which made the final phase of the race a battle. Richard Bradley fought hard to defend but he was unable to do anything against challengers on fresher rubber. Eventually, fourth place was all the team could salvage with their qualifying woes ultimately proving a significant hindrance in the closing laps. Still, the pace in the car was more than evident and fourth place shows that the team has plenty more to offer as the 2019 ELMS season enters its second half at Silverstone in September.  

Pierre commented: “In many respects, I am pleased with the pace we have shown this weekend around one of motorsport’s most established race tracks. It was a pleasure to get reacquainted with the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit, and I was really happy with my performance today. My double stint at the beginning of the race went very well and we were really able to show our ability to fight for victory. Unfortunately, our troubles in qualifying left us with two fresh tyres less than our rivals so we lost out a lot in the final hour. There was nothing we could do, and in the circumstances, we gave a good account of ourselves. We have lots to be proud of this weekend and we will take that into Silverstone. Thanks to all of my colleagues at Duqueine, my fantastic team-mates Nico and Richard, as well as my personal partners.”  

 

Pierre Ragues is supported by his personal partners Yacco, Ellip6 and Sparco.