Exploit in Monaco!
Pierre-Henri Raphanel, born 27 May 1961, is a French former racing driver. He participated in 17 Formula One Grand Prix week-ends, at the time of pre-qualifying, for Larrousse, Coloni and Rial. He only qualified for one race, the 1989 Monaco Grand Prix, but in the Principality he succeeded to show his talent.
In the pre-qualifying session, Raphanel put a very fine performance in his un-fancied Coloni, finishing third, preceding the likes of Brundle, Ghinzani, Johansson, Larini… and so pre-qualifying for the first and ultimately, only time.
Then in qualifying, the French driver again stunned the observers by putting his ‘little’ yellow Coloni-Cosworth in 18th position (out of 29 cars), out-qualifying Nelson Piquet, René Arnoux, Eddie Cheever… just to name a few.
In the race, Pierre-Henri was bravely holding position in the middle of the pack, when on lap 19 a broken gearbox forced him to retire. This was the end of an excellent performance in a car that nobody expected would qualify, certainly not at Monaco.
Following his Formula One career and numerous participations at the Le Mans 24 Hours, Raphanel joined Bugatti in 2006 as the lead test driver and product specialist. He once pushed the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport to its maximum speed (431.072 km/h) in Ehra-Lessien in July 2010.