George King and his Team Virage co-drivers defied the lengthy Ultimate Cup Series hiatus to return to the top step of the podium in thrilling fashion at Estoril in Portugal over the weekend.
Having narrowly missed out on a second victory of the season after a thrilling fightback at Hockenheim came up just short, King and team-mates weren't to be denied again, but kept the crowd on the edge of their seats by claiming the win by just 0.143secs as rain made the final few laps of the race exceptionally tricky.
King arrived in Portugal straight from testing his Team Virage Ligier European Series car at Spa-Francorchamps but, with just a few hours to rest and freshen up, was back on track at 9am and quickly up to speed in the LMP3-specification Ligier JS P320. Despite overnight precipitation making early track conditions tricky for all, King was delighted to be within a tenth of team-mate and European Le Mans Series regular Manuel Espirito Santo, and ahead of rivals TS Corse — and even happier to continue that progress on the second day of testing.
"It was amazing being within a tenth of someone as talented as Manuel, and quicker than TS Corse's pedigree line-up of BRDC Rising Star Ayrton Simmons — who has done years in single-seaters — and Pedro Perino, who is driving regularly in ELMS with DKR Engineering," King confirmed.
"Day two was still tricky, with it starting damp and then drying later in the day, especially as the track was drying quicker in certain spots and staying damp, notably under the trees. It was vital to learn those little nuances about the track to not get caught out. I finished day two still on par with Manuel, which I was super happy with as it showed I was taking a big step in my driver development, particularly having my driving coach, James Winslow, and his knowledge of Estoril, there to help me all week."
As the track was still wet when it came time to qualify on Saturday, King — who had been posting the fastest times in similar conditions — was sent out first to provide a jumpstart to the Virage trio's pursuit of pole position. The #14 car started on wet tyres but, even on the out lap, King noticed that there were dry patches appearing and a dry line starting to come through. Pitting straight away to give his newly-fitted slick tyres proper chance to heat up, King rightfully surmised that the last laps of the session would be the quickest, even if he ultimately missed out top spot.
"For much of the session, I was P1 overall by a good margin," he grimaced, "but, towards the end, I was swapping top spot on a lap-by-lap basis with the more experienced Perino. On the final lap, I claimed provisional pole, but had been held up by slower cars, and was eventually beaten to top spot in my session by 0.04 seconds as Perino had no traffic…
"While it was very frustrating to know I could’ve had pole by some margin, the super qualifying sessions from my team-mates Vyacheslav Gutak and Manuel — who used a completely dry track to set a new lap record — meant we still got P1 with the combined results, so I was super happy with qualifying."
Race day dawned unexpectedly dry and, having through his usual pre-race rituals, King was back behind the wheel of the #14 for the start. Playing it cautiously with the championship still at stake, King found the TS Corse car taking the lead into turn one, but remained glued to the rear of the car ahead, piling on the pressure to try to force its driver to use up their tyres more quickly. After about 30 minutes of pressuring his rival, a safety car interruption not only bunched the field, but also allowed the gamblers to box for fuel only, with King going longer in the stint than everyone else.
Almost as soon as the safety car had withdrawn, the TS Corse car had an issue and slowly returned to the pits, allowing King to spend the next couple of laps repassing cars and getting the #14 back into the lead, before spending the rest of his stint focusing on saving tyres and fuel while putting in fast and consistent lap times.
"Exceeding the team’s expectations for lap time and fuel consumption, I was still lapping faster than anyone on track and building a healthy lead," King reported. "Throughout an hour and 50 minutes, all of my laps except those spent passing slower cars were within half a second of each other. I jumped out happy with my performance and, obviously, with how the race was going."
Gutav then produced a stint on a par with King's, before Espirito Santo showed all of his experience to erase the deficit that kept arising due to the #14 crew's mandatory pit-stop time.
"Over the course of the race, some of the other teams could stop for up to two minutes less than us due to them having a Bronze-rated driver in the car," King explained. "That 'penalty' makes it even more of a struggle for us to get a good result and, coming into the final part of the race, we were 15secs behind the lead car. Considering the extra time we had to stop for, it was incredible that we were that close."
To add to the drama, the rain returned for the final laps; not heavy enough for rain tyres, but heavy enough for the track surface to become slippery and lap times to rise. Espirito Santo pressed on regardless, eventually catching the leader on the final lap to set up a dash to the line. The Portuguese driver kept his foot planted on the accelerator out of the last corner to cross the line by the slimmest of margins, especially in endurance racing.
"The whole team exploded in celebration," King smiled. "With it being Manuel's home race, a lot of his family and friends were there, and it felt good to share the win with them. I’m over the moon with the performance: from start to finish, nothing went wrong all week. The car ran faultlessly and felt mega all the time, especially on new tyres — and even when they were going off — we could always do the lap times we wanted, so thanks to the whole team and our sponsors for making it possible."
King returns to action in round five of the Ligier European Series at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium over the weekend of 23-24 September.
