13 April 2025 – Press Release Arthur Rogeon
European Endurance Prototype Cup, round 1, Paul Ricard
Michelin Le Mans Cup LMP3, round 1, BarcelonaIt’s up and running! The endurance season is already in full swing and in the space of a week, Arthur Rogeon debuted in the two championships in which he is entered in 2025. At Paul Ricard in the European Endurance Prototype Cup, he set the fastest lap in the race, and in Barcelona he clinched seventh place in the Michelin Le Mans Cup alongside his team-mate Thomas Imbourg after a ding-dong scrap! The Laval driver in the CD Sport team showed off his technical skills and his out-and-out speed, which promise great things to come in the next ten events!
European Endurance Prototype Cup
So let’s start in chronological order at Circuit Paul Ricard, which hosted the first 4-hour race of the European Endurance Prototype Cup reserved for Nova NP02 prototypes. Arthur and British drivers Chris Short and Rob Greenwood’s car suffered an assembly fault attributable to the manufacturer, which resulted in his team losing a crucial day’s practice. Naturally this mishap had an impact on qualifying, which determined the starting grid based on the average time of the three drivers.
The #31 Nova started the race in 17th place with Chris Short at the wheel. He was still on the same lap as the leaders when he handed over to Rob Greenwood. One lap later, the rear of the car caught fire! The driver activated the on-board fire extinguisher, and it looked like retirement was inevitable thus preventing Arthur from showing his skills in the race. But the team got down to work, cleaned the engine compartment and replaced the fire extinguisher thus giving Arthur the opportunity to climb into the cockpit and cover the final 31 laps! “I set off again mainly to get some driving time under my belt, and I was surprised to see that I was setting a very good pace. In fact, I posted the fastest lap of the race and was noticeably quicker than the other drivers… 47 laps behind the leader!”
Michelin Le Mans Cup
Without a break and without returning to Laval, Arthur headed to Barcelona for the first round of the Michelin Le Mans Cup, his main objective this season. “The 6th-quickest time in the first session of the Prologue was encouraging, but subsequently we encountered technical problems, and an attempt to evolve the set-up didn’t produce the expected improvements. We had to try something because at the start of this season, which sees the introduction of a new generation of cars, our Duqueine seemed to be a bit off the pace compared to the Ligiers. We limited the damage in qualifying with a 9th place that allowed us to start in the wake of the best LMP3s.”
The race was scheduled for late Saturday afternoon. “Thomas did a really good job at the start and during his stint he brought the car up to P7. In my stint, I struggled to get back into the rhythm after the neutralisations so we’ll have to figure out why. But at other moments, we were on the pace. Finally, we took the flag in 7th place scoring our first points. We were able to improve between the start and the finish and overcome the problems we encountered early on in the meeting to secure a result. The team has planned a major development push at Le Castellet on April 16 and 17 to improve the car, while Duqueine is also preparing upgrades that will be available for the next race.”
Arthur is right to point out that overall, the first event was mainly positive. It’s always motivating to have room for improvement, and this will be reassessed at Paul Ricard in the first weekend of May!
