Pressiteade
Followingthe first two productive free-practice sessions, with one run during the dayand the other at night, Les Bleus continued to work on the balance ofthe Alpine A470 before Pierre Ragues and André Negrão got behind the wheel forqualifying.
Forthe first time in its history, Alpine didn’t take the pole position at theBahrain International Circuit due to a spin early in the session as the duo hadto make do with large flat spots on their tyres. Seventh in LMP2 and with oneless set of tyres prior to the start, the Philippe Sinault led squad lined upfor the race with the bit between their teeth.
AndréNegrão got off to a strong start on the opening lap that was marked by contactbetween two LMP1 cars. Briefly fourth overall, the Brazilian driver settledinto the top five in LMP2 when the safety car was called into service.
Hedid a fantastic job in traffic in his first double-stint to put the n°36 AlpineA470 into the top three at end of hour one. In the middle of a tightly bunchedchase group, André Negrão oscillated between third and fourth place beforebriefly occupying the lead by extending his second stint compared to thecompetition to make up for the handicap resulting from qualifying.
PierreRagues got in the car while the sun gradually set over the Kingdom of Bahrain.The Silver driver did his part in perfectly managing the tyres on this demandingtrack on the tyres before Thomas Laurent began his opening double-stint.
Thanksto the Frenchman’s solid pace, the crew was fifth at half-distance, then pickedup a position before André Negrão took over for another double-stint. TheBrazilian was again relayed by Pierre Ragues who reached his minimum drivingtime.
Withone hour and twenty minutes remaining, Thomas Laurent went back out in fifthplace and immediately went on the attack while the different strategies linedup with a full course yellow 45 minutes from the finish. The team tookadvantage to put in its final pit stop before the Frenchman did a masterful jobwith fuel consumption to secure fifth place, 13 seconds behind a competitorineligible to score points and a lap ahead of the leaders in the generalclassification coming into the weekend.
With18 points scored in Bahrain, Signatech Alpine Elf stays in contact with theleaders in an LMP2 category that is as close as ever with the top six carscovered by less than 25 points, which is equal to a win at the next round.
Afterthe rookie tests today, the Signatech Elf Alpine team will receive this eveningthe FIA LMP2 Endurance Trophy for its title won during the 2018-2019 season.The winter break then begins just until the return of the FIA World EnduranceChampionship at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin from 21-23 February,2020. The round will begin a string of four races that will conclude at the 24Hours of Le Mans.
Philippe Sinault, Team principalSignatech Alpine Elf
“We alwayssaid this season would be extremely close. Not only is it the case, but the statementis an understatement with the top-five teams separated by just 16 points at themid-season point. Nothing is settled and it will be a battle all the way to theend. In this context, the smallest error can be costly. We made one inqualifying, where we needed some time to find the right set-up. The car wasperhaps a bit ‘difficult’, Pierre lost control and locked up the four wheels toavoid much more serious consequences. Unfortunately, it cost us a set of tyreswhile we are limited to six and a half sets, a quota that we absolutely neededfor an eight-hour race. We actually made one less stop, which was obviouslydetrimental to our pace. This didn’t help us, but there were several positivepoints. André put in an excellent start to move us into the leading trio and ina good momentum after our tricky qualifying. The setup also seemed to be goodas Thomas posted the third fastest lap in the race at just 0.09s to thereference time. This showed that we had the same pace as the leaders on equaltyre wear. We are still in the leading group, just 16 points behind firstplace, and it is an important point when taking into account the quality andreliability of our rivals since the start of the season, including aneight-hour race like today’s.”
André Negrão:“It wasn’t a difficult weekend, butonce again we had to work hard to have a good car for qualifying. We have tofix this, because our race pace was quite solid. I got a good start andfinished my first double-stint with the lead. Pierre struggled a little more,but we managed to settle into fifth place and it is worth fourth place pointsas the G-Drive is ineligible to score. It is a rather positive result, but weneed to do better in Austin, and even more so in qualifying.”
Pierre Ragues: “We improved a lot with the car throughout thefree-practice sessions, but my mistake in qualifying cost us a set of tyres sowe knew that an eight-hour race on a circuit that severely degrades tyres wouldbe complicated. We focused our strategy on this aspect to make a minimum numberof stops and we made one less than everyone else. We did our best and there arepositives to be taken away. We did show some good things and were on solid pacewhen we were battling for the lead. We are still in the hunt and I hope thatthe winter break will allow us to come back in the best of conditions.”
Thomas Laurent: “The 8 Hours of Bahrain was gruelling between the heatand humidity, but we can draw some positives. It was probably our best race ofthe season, although our position on the grid and our fewer tyres explain thefinal result. I think we were among the three fastest crews on track as ourtimes have shown. The team did an excellent job with the pit stops and set-ups,but we know that we need to work on qualifying to make things easier. Theengineers were able to gather a lot of data to prepare for Austin, where Alpinewon last time out. The goal will thus be to repeat this result.”
Classification
8 Hours of Bahrain – LMP2
1. United Autosports n°22 182 laps
2. JOTA n°38 +21.500s
3. Jackie Chan DC Racing n°37 + 1 lap
4. G-Drive Racing n°26 + 1 lap *
5. Signatech Alpine Elf n°36 + 1 lap
6. Racing Team Nederland n°29 + 2 laps
7. Cool Racing n°42 + 4 laps
8. High Class Racing n°33+ 5 laps
9. Cetilar Racing n°33 + 9 laps
* competitor ineligible to score points
FIA LMP2Teams’ Trophy
1. Jackie Chan DC Racing n°37 – 72 points
2. United Autosports n°22 – 69 points
3. Racing Team Nederland n°29 – 66 points
4. JOTA n°38 – 62 points
