After claiming second place at Imola, Signatech Alpine secures another silver medal at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.
Result consolidates the second place of Nelson Panciatici and Pierre Ragues in the provisional 2013 European Le Mans Series standings after three rounds.
The next outing for the Alpine A450 will be at the Hungaroring, Hungary, on September 13-14.
The third round of the European Le Mans Series got off to a flying start for Signatech Alpine. Nelson Panciatici took advantage of the teams strong work in free practice to emerge at the top of the time sheet in qualifying. However, the Alpine A450 was handed a penalty by race control and was forced to start the 3 Hours of Red Bull Ring from the fourth row.
Pierre Ragues was in the car for the start of race and soon began to climb up the order. He completed the opening lap in seventh place and this enabled him to maintain contact with the other potential winners.
After a double stint, he handed the car to Nelson Panciatici at the races halfway point and the Frenchman continued to climb up the leaderboard. Within 20 or so minutes, Panciatici put the car into second spot and then successfully defended his position to harvest Signatech Alpines second straight podium finish in the European Le Mans Series.
The team did an excellent job, underlined, Signatech Alpines Team Principal Philippe Sinault. The Alpine A450 was competitive from the start of the weekend and Nelson was particularly strong in qualifying. It was tough to see us stripped of our times after he posted the fastest lap of the session under yellow flags. Pierre Ragues started from eighth on the grid before handing over to Nelson Panciatici who produced a good run in difficult conditions. They both had to push hard to move up the order despite the traffic. A traction-related problem didnt make overtaking easy for them. The teams pit work was perfect throughout the race and coming second is almost like a win after we started from eighth place. We still have some hard work to do to prepare for the end of the season but we will be targeting victory when we go to Hungary in September.
Pierre Ragues: Starting from eighth on the grid made our mission rather complex. I didnt want to take any risks to begin with because of the traffic. If we had started from the front row, it would have been a very different picture. I cant wait for Budapest I dont want people to start thinking we cant finish any higher than second!
Nelson Panciatici: The qualifying session went perfectly for us and we posted several laps that would have put us on pole position, or at least on the front row. We respect the stewards decision, although we did find the penalty a little harsh. To have started from eighth and finish second is an excellent result which is due to a real team effort. Whenever the track was clear, I tried to push as hard as I could, but the task was much harder in the traffic. The next race cant come fast enough for me!
Paul-Loup Chatin took the win in the LM PC class to strengthen his lead in the championship.
3 Hours of Red Bull Ring final positions:1, Thiriet by TDS Racing (Beche / Thiriet), 122 laps2, Signatech Alpine (Panciatici / Ragues), +21.143s3, Morand Racing (Mailleux / Gachnang), +49.915s4, Jota Sport (Turvey / Dolan), +1 lap5, Race Performance (Niederhauser / Frey), +1 lap.Etc.
European Le Mans Series standings (after three rounds)1, Thiriet by TDS Racing (65 points)2, Signatech Alpine (48 points)3, Jota Sport et Race Performance (40 points)5, Morand Racing (30 points)
