Motor racing is all about “ifs, buts and maybes” but for Simon Pagenaud, he ended up being only a total of 52 seconds away from winning both the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The talented Frenchman starred at Sebring to bring the Highcroft Racing HPD within 39 seconds of an amazing upset victory – losing out to the ORECA Peugeot.

And yesterday at Le Mans it was even closer – only 13 seconds marked the difference between his Peugeot and the winning Audi.

Known to his American Le Mans Series fans as “Jean Gerard” – his pace can be summed up by one simple fact. When it is time to go at the finish – his race teams have a simple choice as to who to put in the car, Simon Pagenaud.

“I would have preferred to be the one being chased!” Pagenaud told SPEED.com.

“It was a titanic battle. We didn’t think it would be as tight as that.

“We had three Peugeots running at the finish, and four including the ORECA. It shows great preparation, but we lacked that little bit extra.

“Audi won and had two more stops, so the difference was on the track. They were quicker on the laps. It was more difficult to finish second by only 13 seconds because it was such a tough battle.”