After six hours of racing in the 87th Le Mans 24 Hours, Larbre Competition’s #50 Ligier JS P217 has run well and, despite a puncture and minor contact, currently holds 23rd out of the 61 starters.
As Charlene, Princess of Monaco waved the famous Tricolore to signal the start of the race, the French squad started strong with Nicholas Boulle behind the wheel.
He kept his nose clean and gained a place from 28th overall on the grid, completing three stints to run for nearly two hours. Misfortunate struck as the driver change approached however, as he suffered a right-rear puncture, causing some bodywork damage, before Romano Ricci took over.
The Frenchman completed an error-free triple stint to hold 26th overall before handing over to Erwin Creed, praising how easy the car is to drive as he emerged back into the garage to highlight Larbre’s relentless work on race set-up is paying off.
Creed maintained position but made contact with a backmarker, giving him a five-second time penalty. Two safety car periods in the sixth hour bunched the field up, during the second of which Erwin, after several incidents across the field, handed back over to Boulle in 23rd overall with three-quarters of the race remaining.
Nicholas Boulle: “I focused on staying out of trouble at the start and put in a super smooth run until we had the puncture. The car ran well, Romano had a good run. Hopefully we can make up some more places as we head into the night where the race can turn completely on its head.”
Romano Ricci: “The car was easy to drive so the work we’ve been doing to focus fully on the race balance, rather than pure lap time for qualifying, is paying off. Nicholas did a great triple stint and mine was also very smooth so we’re looking comfortable so far.”
Erwin Creed: “The car feels good, I’m happy with the balance so we did the right thing to focus on the race. Both Nicholas and Romano put in great stints, I unfortunately had a bit of contact with one of the GTE cars but we’ve still made progress from our grid spot and we’re running to the plan.”
Source. Larbre Compétition/Photo. MPS Agency
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