#0674 'French Rebellion'

24H of Le Mans

Alpine A470 #35
Drivers: Panciatici, Ragues, Negrao

Alpine A470 #36
Drivers: Dumas, Menezes, Rao

"Vaillante" Oreca #13
Drivers: Piquet Junior, Beche, Heinemeier-Hanson

"Vaillante" Oreca #31
Drivers: Senna, Prost, Canal

In the preliminary tests for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Alpine A470 with starting number 35 was the fastest of the LMP2 with a lap time of 3:28.146 minutes, in qualifying it even jumped out at 3:27.517. The LMP2 cars were as fast as the LMP1 prototypes in the years 2000 to 2010. Nelson Panciatici, Pierre Ragues and Andre Negrao achieved a sensational fourth place overall in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, after only the Porsche LMP1 of Timo Bernhard and the two Jackie Chan Racing LMP2 finished ahead of them. The #36 Alpine A470, with Romain Dumas, Gustavo Menezes and Matthew Rao, wasn't quite as successful. They finished tenth overall and eighth in LMP2. One had hoped for more in the Vaillante Rebellion, but the LMP2 category is always a hotly contested field. After a first-class qualifying time of 3:36.811 minutes and thus fourth place in the LMP2 field, the driver trio Nicolas Prost, Bruno Senna and Julien Canal did not finish 14th out of 25 vehicles in their Rebellion LMP2 (Oreca 07) in the race the LMP2 beyond.