Suspense-filled Mexican race ends with second place in LMP2 for Alpine

The N°36 Alpine of Lapierre / Richelmi / Menezes was in contention for the victory throughout the six-hour race before ultimately securing second place, less than two seconds short of the winning car.The N°35 Baxi DC Racing Alpine entry of Panciatici / Tung / Cheng came sixth to equal its best result of the season to date.

The 6 Hours of Mexico, the first of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship’s (WEC) long-haul fixtures, lived up every bit to its promise, providing the large crowd of connoisseur spectators with a chance to discover the discipline’s elite at close quarters.

Friday’s cloudy qualifying saw the N°36 Signatech-Alpine confirm the progress it had shown during free practice when Menezes and Lapierre claimed second place on the LMP2 grid, despite a small error by the Frenchman. Meanwhile, Panciatici and Cheng qualified ninth in their class in the N°35 car (Baxi DC Racing Alpine).

The sky was overcast once more when Saturday’s race got under way at 1:30pm local time, with forecasters predicting showery weather for later in the afternoon.

Gustavo Menezes and Nelson Panciatici were nominated to start in their respective Alpine A460s. The Californian succeeded in steering clear of the early tangles to keep the N°36 car up with the leading pack, while the Parisian fought back to figure as high as fourth in the N°35 prototype!

After their opening stints, these two drivers were respectively replaced by Stéphane Richelmi and David Cheng. The Monaco driver (N°36) soon appeared at the top of the LMP2 leaderboard and was in front at the race’s halfway point, although the gaps were still small at this stage.

By this time, Ho-Pin Tung had already taken over from David Cheng as rain began to sweep over the Mexican circuit with around two hours and 20 minutes remaining. The team took this opportunity to call in Richelmi to be replaced by Lapierre.

Now on intermediate tyres, the N°36 Alpine A460 re-joined in second place, about 20 seconds short of the lead, while the N°35 car was seventh, on the same lap as the fourth-placed crew.

As a dry line started to appear, the N°36 prototype fell back to third spot after being forced to comply with a drive-through penalty due to an earlier pit stop infringement. There was then more drama just 35 minutes from the chequered flag when a problem for the front-running G-Drive car handed second place to Nicolas Lapierre who suddenly found himself just 10 seconds adrift of the leading car (RGR).

As light rain began to fall again, the Alpine driver made a concerted effort and successfully narrowed the gap. Hampered by traffic and yellow flags, however, he failed to find a way past and had to settle for second place at the finish, just 1.985s short of the victory.

Ho-Pin Tung survived a spectacular 360-degree spin with about 10 minutes remaining to claim sixth place, a result which equals the car’s performance at Silverstone in April.

The outcome sees Signatech-Alpine maintain its lead in the provisional championship standings. It is now 30 points clear of its closest challenger, while Baxi DC Racing is ninth on 22 points.

The next round of the 2016 FIA WEC will take teams to Austin, Texas, USA, for Gustavo Menezes’ home race on September 15-17.

Bernard Ollivier, Deputy Managing Director of Alpine: “Sometimes, second place can feel like a victory, and that was the case in Mexico. Our drivers delivered a gritty yet stylish performance to provide a fantastic, suspense-filled race against the eventual winning car which was racing in the colours of the host country, no less! I would particularly like to congratulate Nelson Panciatici on his superb fightback in the N°35 car. At the same time, the TV coverage didn’t fail to pick up on the late charge of the N°36 Alpine which gave us some superb exposure. To my mind, it was a race which mirrored Alpine’s values. Everyone in the team was beaming after the finish and we leave Mexico on a high note!”

Philippe Sinault, Signatech-Alpine Team Principal: “We put in another polished race and I am especially pleased with the end result because we kicked off the week with a small performance deficit to our main rivals. Our strength was that we managed to stay focused. We were also able to count on two nicely-balanced driver line-ups to pocket a podium finish. Our only frustration was the drive-through penalty. It was only a minor infringement, but we accept the rules of the game. The last part of the race was quite stressful because we had to take the weather conditions into account, as well. Nicolas [Lapierre] fought back well and made one last short ‘splash and dash’ refuelling stop to stay on the heels of the RGR car. We were less than two seconds behind it over the line, so we shouldn’t have any regrets. Nelson Panciatici put in some fantastic stints in the N°35 car. He managed to overcome the traffic and keep out of the high number of tangles to appear as high as fourth, while his speed matched that of the front-runners. David Cheng put in his best race of the year, too, which is a promising pointer for the rest of the season. We’ve resumed the championship with a strong pace and we can’t wait to get racing again in Austin!”

Nelson Panciatici: “I thoroughly enjoyed myself in our car which ran like clockwork throughout. There was some close fighting in the pack and it got pretty tense at times. Our car was fast through the corners but a little down on speed along the straights, which didn’t help with overtaking. Each time I had a clear track ahead of me, though, I managed to post some decent lap times. Overall, it was a very good week for us.”

David Cheng: “It was quite a crazy race. Our rivals were particularly fast and the unpredictable weather meant strategy played an important role. I believe we have good reason to be pleased with our performance. Nelson did a superb job early on and I am happy with my stint, as well. I was consistent and didn’t make any mistakes. Ho-Pin rounded it off well despite the extremely difficult conditions. Mexico was another step in the right direction for us and we will endeavour to do even better in the USA.”

Ho-Pin Tung: “I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I don’t think we could have done much better, but our final position doesn’t really reflect our level. The conditions were tough during my stint, especially as we were a little down on performance because of damage to the front of the car. I span on slicks in the rain but the car didn’t suffer. I’m looking forward to the next race in Austin.”

Gustavo Menezes: “It was another great race for the team. I was fastest in qualifying, so I had the dubious privilege of being nominated for the start. I really didn’t want to get involved in any tangles because it might have weakened our position in the championship, and that’s why I dropped a position on Lap 6. After that, it was something of an emotional roller-coaster ride for us and quite complex, too, as far as strategy was concerned. Stéphane and Nicolas did a superb job to go out and get this result. It was the ideal way to build up to my home round!”

Stéphane Richelmi: “We know we can’t win every race! We were running well until it started to rain which forced us to rethink our strategy. The drive-through penalty cost us valuable time, of course. I feel very positive, though, because our performance improved over the three days and that will be a big plus for the coming races. It was nice to see RGR win on home turf. They are getting closer in the championship standings but we still have a comfortable cushion.”

Nicolas Lapierre: “We fought hard and second place isn’t a bad result, even though RGR has slightly narrowed the gap in the championship. When it was my turn to get in the car, it was on intermediates and I was able to match the pace of our rivals. After I switched to slicks, I was running faster than the others when rain started to fall again. We didn’t finish far behind the winner but I wasn’t helped by the traffic. I feel optimistic for the upcoming races. They should suit our strengths.”

6 HOURS OF MEXICO LMP2 CLASSIFICATION1. RGR Sport by Morand n°43 210 laps2. Signatech-Alpine n°36 +1.9853. Extreme Speed Motorsports n°31 +3 laps4. Strakka Racing n°42 +3 laps5. Greaves Motorsport n°41 +3 laps6. Baxi DC Racing Alpine n°35 +4 laps7. SMP Racing n°27 +4 laps8. G-Drive Racing n°26 +5 laps9. Extreme Speed Motorsports n°30 +6 laps

 FIA ENDURANCE TROPHY FOR LMP2 TEAMS

1. Signatech-Alpine 130pts2. RGR Sport by Morand 100pts3. Extreme Speed Motorsports #31 74pts4. G-Drive Racing 71pts5. Strakka Racing 58pts6. SMP Racing #37 50pts7. SMP Racing #27 32pts8. Extreme Speed Motorsports #30 30pts9. Baxi DC Racing Alpine 22pts10. Manor 18pts


Related Motorsport Articles

84,520 articles