ELMS SPA 2023

Aragon was so nice, I had to do it twice. During the WEC weekend in Fuji we got the call from Algarve Pro Racing again to drive their #20 car in European Le Mans Series, this time at Spa-Francorchamps, a track on which I netted a fourth earlier this year in the World Championship.

Once again, I was teamed up with Tristan and Fred, where the latter had to take qualifying duties due to the bronze driver rule in LMP2 Pro-Am. Fred struggled to adapt to the challenging Ardennes track, but nevertheless was able to stay within striking distance of more experienced bronze drivers.

Starting tenth out of ten, I got in the car when Fred pitted and was given the instruction to make up ground. Within an hour we were fifth, and at the end of my stint we were leading the pack. To be fair this was due to us not boxing during the Safety Car, but anyway, we were P1 – who would have thought that?

Tristan was part of a fierce battle in the dying seconds of the race, in which we looked good for a podium finish. Sadly, the car stepped out and Tristan shortly lost control, which lead to us dropping to P6. In the end that’s not a bad result, if you keep in mind that we started last. But yeah, if a podium is so close, you can’t suppress a feeling of disappointment.

Racing with Algarve Pro was good, I must thank Stewart and Samantha Cox for giving me another opportunity to drive in the European Le Mans Series and obviously Prema Racing for allowing me to do so. I really loved to work with my pal Tristan once again and found a friend in Fred, a top man who is really eager to succeed in everything he does in life.