Second Place at 6 Hours of Nurburgring For RGR Sport

Despite a difficult start to the 6 Hours of Nurburgring, drivers Filipe Albuquerque, Ricardo Gonzalez, and Bruno Senna drove the #43 Nissan Ligier JS P2 of RGR Sport with tenacity amongst the rest of the contenders of the FIA World Endurance Championship to finish second.

It was a battle from the start throughout the entire six hours after a crowded field of cars entered turn one around Albuquerque, forcing him to move from fourth to seventh place. With the confidence of a well-prepared car, the Portuguese driver kept the team in the chase for positions before handing the car over to team owner, Ricardo Gonzalez in the second hour of the race.

In the following two hours, the combination of swift driving from Gonzalez and impeccable strategy from RGR Sport’s engineers allowed the team to stake their claim within the top five. Passing both the #27 and #37 cars of Russian team, SMP Racing, became somewhat of a trend during this portion of the race and continued up until Bruno Senna took the wheel.

There were no serious crashes, but a few incidents on track and a fire in the pit-lane from the #67 Ford Chip Ganassi UK GTLM Pro team were enough to keep the RGR Sport engineers adjusting their race strategy. The hard work fell in the Mexican teams favor as the #43 climbed up to second with two hours to go.

Albuquerque took over from Senna for a final run in the car in the fourth hour and kept the team content by continuing to close the gap from team, Signatech Alpine, in first place. A full course yellow implemented with 53 minutes to go, the result of the LMP1 battle between Audi and Porsche, which left debris on track, was RGR Sport’s opportunity to pit and swap Albuquerque for Senna to finish the 6 hours of Nurburgring.

The Brazilian gave the team a fright with only 13 minutes away from the checkered flag after he got too close to the car in front of him and lost control of the rear of the #43 Nissan Ligier JS P2 while under breaking and went off course. Much to everyone’s relief, Senna was able to quickly gain control and return to the race unaffected and still in second place. From here, Senna drove the Mexican team to their second podium of the season and back to second in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s point’s standings.

With much anticipation, the FIA World Endurance Championship will now go over-seas for the 6 Hours of Mexico held in Mexico City, Mexico September 1-3rd. Promoted by RGR Sport team owner and driver, Ricardo Gonzalez, the team is looking forward to being amongst the home crowd.

Team Owner/Driver – Ricardo Gonzalez

“I’m very happy with our result of second place. It was an eventful race, but we had a very good pace. We struggled a little bit with traffic and straight line speed, but in the end the car was the best it has ben all year to drive and I felt a lot of joy in both stints of my race. I’m hoping for the same feeling when we hit the track in Mexico.”

Driver – Bruno Senna

“Second place was very good for everyone and I think it’s safe to say the team is happy. Of course we always want the top step of the podium, but with todays conditions that was the best we could do. I think are car was so competitive this weekend and I’m so happy about that. The car was really nice to drive, Ricardo and Filipe did a great job, and we put in a good fight to catch the cars in front of us.

I think we come out of this race with a smile on our face and go to Mexico knowing we did a good job. We will keep pushing for the championship now that we have moved into second place and will continue to move up in the remaining races.”

Driver – Filipe Albuquerque

“This is a great achievement for the team. Personally, I am a little frustrated with my first stint because I got stuck behind one of the SMP cars and lost a lot of time. After that Ricrado and Bruno did a fantastic job and handed me the car in second place chasing first place.

The car was really good and the team did fantastic with the strategy to recover a lot of time and come from the back up to second place. Now we are second in the championship standings so I’m happy.”

Sporting Director – Toni Calderon

“We are very happy with todays result. It was a very, very strong race by the entire team. We lost some time in the beginning after getting stuck behind the SMP car, but after that our driver were flying with Ricardo doing a great job and Bruno and Filipe being the strongest drivers out there. We made up a lot of time after being lucky with some yellow flags but then again not so lucky with others, but overall it was a very good race.

We are back to second in the points, which is good. We will be going into Mexico with good points and a lot of momentum. We are ready to win in front of our Mexican fans.”

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