Alpine's thrilling ascent in Austrian Alps

The third round of the European Le Mans Series got off to a flying start for Signatech Alpine. Nelson Panciatici took advantage of the team's 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 race's 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 Alpine's second straight podium finish in the European Le Mans Series.

“The team did an excellent job,” underlined, Signatech Alpine's 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 didn't make overtaking easy for them. The team's 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 didn't 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 can't wait for Budapest… I don't want people to start thinking we can't 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 can't come fast enough for me!”

Paul-Loup Chatin took the win in the LM PC class to strengthen his lead in the championship.

Full team release here