George King's run of late-season success continued in France as he jumped straight from sealing a second straight Ligier European Series victory to the top step of the podium in the Ultimate Cup.
Boosted by an invitation to test Team Virage's LMP3 machine in the official European Le Mans Series rookie test session that followed the LES weekend at Portimao, King flew straight to France to continue his UCS title bid, but found that the poor weather that had blighted his time in Portugal was headed in the same direction. Having never previously been to the Magny-Cours facility, and with limited simulator training before the race weekend, the persistent rain was not going to make the 22-year old's task any easier, despite spending the hours after arriving studying data and watching video footage of previous events.
King need not have worried as, despite his inexperience, he set the fastest time in the first pre-race test session, but that was where his preparations virtually ground to a halt as a series of unfortunate incidents hampered any further attempt at useful track time in the following day's official practice.
"I was comfortable driving in the rain, mainly because I'm British but also from having driven in mostly wet conditions in Portimao the weekend before," the Briton noted with a smile. "The first day at Magny-Cours was wet and I set the fastest time in those conditions — and, when [team-mate] Manuel [Espirito Santo] arrived for the afternoon sessions, we were very close in lap times, which was a big positive.
"Friday's official practice sessions were planned so that I'd be first out in the car for the opening session, when it was still wet, and then jump back in at the end, when the track was due to dry up, to give me a chance to drive the car in those conditions too. However, as I jumped into the car to finish the session, the red flag came out and everything stopped, meaning that I missed out on crucial dry laps."
Even in Friday's 'after dark' session, staged to replicate the conditions drivers would face in Saturday's night race, King's luck refused to hold, as Team Virage's third driver, Viacheslav Gutak, flat-spotted the tyres on the #14 Ligier, forcing King to acclimatise on a different set when he got back behind the wheel.
"The plan was for Slav to start the session, allowing me to drive on a dry track on warm tyres and in good conditions," he noted. "However, with the team not predicting to change tyres until later in the session, they had none in the oven ready for a quick swap, so I had to jump in for the first time on a dry track and slicks with stone-cold tyres with super low pressures. Understandably, because it was at night in October, it took several laps for them to get up to the right temperature and I only got around three laps to really push when the tyres were at their optimum, which wasn't ideal, even though I was able to set some purple sector times before having to hand over to Manuel."
When King returned to the cockpit after his co-drivers had finished their runs, another red flag brought the session to a halt after just two laps, severely limiting his dry laps before qualifying the following morning. As it happened, the timed session dawned wet and the Briton again went fastest during his time on track, before his team-mates consolidated his efforts.
"I got pole in my stint by 1.3 seconds, which I was obviously very happy about," King confirmed. "Slav went out in the second stint on wet tyres but, towards the end, it started to dry and other cars got the better of the conditions to set better times. Manuel was in for the third session and also went fastest, which put us on pole position overall."
King was first in the car when the race got underway later that day — and, typically, it started to spit with rain as he set off on the formation lap. Fortunately, the precipitation was not enough to change the level of grip available to the #14 Team Virage car, but may have caused King's rivals to overthink the conditions as he fairly rocketed away from the field and built a substantial advantage before the end of his stint.
"I'm not sure if the rain psyched anyone out, but I got a mega start into turn one and had pulled a five-car gap by turn three," he recounted. "After that, it was all about fuel saving while pushing to try and gain as big a gap as possible to the other team, most of whom had shorter time penalties during the pit-stops due to them running a bronze category driver in their cars. We have to remain stationary for two minutes more as a full 'silver' line-up, which makes it much hard to win."
Despite having to try and save fuel to make the strategy pay off, King pulled a 50-second lead over Virage's main competitor, allowing the team to pit for a mandatory stop to cover a potential safety car appearance that would reduce that gap back to just a few seconds. It proved to be the right decision as, just as King exited the pit-lane, the safety car was called, preventing anyone else from making a mandatory stop. Having refuelled, the Briton was able to push hard from the restart and, even though he had rejoined at the back of the pack, fought his way back to first position before handing over to Gutak.
Despite an unfortunate spin that cost the #14 valuable seconds, Gutak got his head down and drove through the rest of his stint, ensuring the car remained firmly in contention as Espirito Santo took the wheel for the run the chequered flag, although the Portuguese ace would have to make up places as the pit-stop penalties took effect, handing Team Virage's main rival a 30-second lead. The ELMS veteran pushed hard to close the gap, latching onto the tail of the #27 machine in just 17 laps despite having to fight through traffic and, once again, his efforts set up a nail-biting finish.
"Manuel pushed like hell to catch up, which was a mammoth effort," King said. "Again, it came down to the last lap to decide the winner, and Manuel set the #27 up with a move into T6, the high-speed chicane by getting a good exit out of the hairpin before. He was alongside the #27 heading into the chicane but wasn't left enough space and contact was made, sending both cars off the road. Fortunately, our car ending up better off and was still heading straight, and Manuel continued to win the race."
Victory — the #14 car's third from five races in the UCS this season — keeps King at the top of both the overall and LMP3 class standings with one round remaining, at Paul Ricard, later this month.
"It was another great result for the team — and for our championship hopes," King confirmed. "Everyone was ecstatic in the garage. Thanks o the team, to Slav and Manuel and to everyone who supports us, be they sponsors or spectators. One round to go — let's hope it's not quite as dramatic as the last couple!"
King returns to action in round six of the Ultimate Cup Series at Paul Ricard in the south of France over the weekend of 24-26 November.
