A very competitive double stint for Pierre Ragues at the start of this afternoon’s 1000km of Spa-Francorchamps was the highlight of a disappointing race for Signature in Belgium today after mechanical trouble and some ill-timed wet weather resulted in a 13th placed finish at the chequered flag. Pierre capitalised on the team’s highly respectable eighth place on the grid and the team ran in the top six in just their second full race weekend as official LMP1 partners for Aston Martin Racing. Frustratingly, mechanical trouble during his team-mate Franck Mailleux’s double stint saw them drop down the field significantly. It was a rough end to a race weekend that had started off in challenging conditions. Following a cold and wet opening day in Belgium on Friday, the Signature team worked hard to improve the handling of the car after difficult free practice sessions saw them languish in respective 11th and 14th positions.
A set-up breakthrough from Saturday morning practice to the afternoon qualifying session enabled Franck to qualify with confidence, setting the eighth fastest time behind the four works Peugeots and three works Audi cars, and holding the honour of being the top petrol-powered car. Pierre got a good start and kept out of trouble, getting into a very good rhythm throughout his double stint, but a problem with the gearbox towards the end of Franck’s stints required him to pit in to allow the team to replace the gear selector. Some sterling work by the team allowed third driver, Vanina Ickx, to get back out on track just 11 minutes later.
The car’s pace was once again strong but Vanina unfortunately miscalculated an overtaking manoeuvre which resulted in a trip to the gravel trap and cost further time to get the car back on track. Even after returning to the race, matters became more difficult with a late rain shower prompting the team to make the safe call for intermediate tyres. The rain, however, stopped quickly and the track dried up leaving Vanina no choice but to nurse the car home on worn tyres in 13th spot. Pierre Ragues said: “It has been a weekend of ups and downs, but it was a shame to end the race weekend in 13th place after the team had made such improvements with the car set-up during the weekend.
On Friday, it was really cold and the car was difficult to drive; there just appeared to be a lack of outright pace, especially in the middle sector of the lap. The weather improved a bit on Saturday and the team had found some key improvements to the set-up of the car which gave us more confidence to drive. We were able to evaluate some slick tyres from Dunlop which gave good consistency and performance. Our qualifying result was good and that gave me a good starting position for the race. I encountered no problems during my double stint and was convinced we had the pace to challenge the top six. It was a shame that the gearbox gremlins found us during Franck’s double stint and then with Vanina’s problems we were well off where we should have been. Nevertheless, the performance of the car is a genuine sign of encouragement before Le Mans 24 Hours and the work of the team has again been tireless. The support of my sponsor Groupe Auto Union has again been fantastic, so I am looking forward to Le Mans where I am hopeful of our 2010 breakthrough.”
Source : Pierre Ragues