How they won the LMP2 title: Menezes, Lapierre and Richelmi / Signatech Alpine
In a season dominated by the Signatech Alpine squad, the opening round at Silverstone was a curious anomaly. It was one of only two occasions all year where Nicolas Lapierre, Stéphane Richelmi and Gustavo Menezes did not make the podium, as all three drivers reported struggling with tyre wear.
In their place, the all-new RGR Sport outfit anddrivers Bruno Senna, Filipe Albuquerque and Ricardo Gonzalez took a maiden win, while Lapierre lost third place to G-Drive Racing’s René Rast in the closing stages, despite the German briefly being halted by a fuel pump issue.
However, from those inauspicious beginnings Signatech Alpine really came into its own at Spa-Francorchamps, as Lapierre cleverly used the Ford of Marino Franchitti to complete a last-gasp pass for the win over Tequila Patron ESM’s Pipo Derani. It was only the team’s second WEC victory after Shanghai 2015 but it wasn’t long before it had cause to celebrate again, this time the biggest race of them all – Le Mans.
The triumph was made all the more remarkable by the fact that both Richelmi and Menezes were visiting La Sarthe for the first time, and for 21-year-old Menezes it was the first 24-hour race of his entire career. But the young American didn’t put a foot wrong throughout and made his mark on the race with a superb quadruple stint in the early hours to put Signatech in the frame. It was Lapierre’s second victory at Le Mans in as many seasons, and gave command of the points standings to the team for the first time.
Signatech Alpine did not relinquish its grip on the title for the remainder of the season, with a third consecutive victory at the Nürburgring in July followed by a strong run to second in Mexico, as RGR Sport (and 6 Hours of Mexico promoter Gonzalez) returned to the top step on home soil. A fourth victory of the season at COTA meant the hard work was all but complete, but there were still three of the most entertaining races of the season yet to come.
All Signatech needed to do was continue to score points consistently in the remaining races and keep out of trouble to wrap up the title, which it did with a round to spare at Shanghai. This coincided with an upturn in form for G-Drive, as Roman Rusinov and Alex Brundle completed the year with a hat trick of victories at Fuji, Shanghai and Bahrain, two with Will Stevens and one with the returning Rast.
Rusinov, who was only denied victory in Mexico by a brake failure in the final hour, still had a slim chance of taking second in the points heading into the final race but, despite winning from the back of the grid after failing the post-qualifying scrutineering, RGR’s second place was enough to secure the runners-up spot in the LMP2 championship.
However, the Mexican team’s delight paled in comparison next to Signatech, with the impressive Menezes earning himself a test in the LMP1 championship-winning Porsche 919 Hybrid in the WEC’s Bahrain rookie test. Wherever he goes next, he will look back on his first season in sportscars with great fondness.
