George King was denied the chance to finish his 2024 European Endurance Prototype Cup campaign with a place on the podium, having once again shown his undoubted talent behind the wheel.
The season has been a nomadic one for the reigning series champion, and his final outing on the Ultimate Cup Series bill would be behind the wheel of one of Graff’s NP02 class Nova Proto machines alongside French team-mates Louis Rossi and Remy Deguffroy. Although King was new to his co-drivers, he had at least driven a similar Graff entry before, on his NP02 class debut at Mugello, and was able to acclimatise himself to the #39 entry without undue problems.
All three drivers used the opening day’s track time to work on the car’s set-up, focusing more on the four-hour race that lay ahead than its outright pace over a single lap as they worked to maximise fuel strategy and tyre wear in a bid to run longer than their rivals on Sunday.
“The test days were a mix of wet and dry conditions, and we always seemed to get caught in that awkward moment of deciding whether to cross between slick tyres and wets,” King noted. “That made it hard for my team-mates to get comfortable in the car, and also made it difficult to go through data as the track conditions were never the same from run to run. However, after maximising the setup with our engineer, Alex Perreau, we were confident that we could get a good result in the race, regardless of how we qualified.”
Saturday morning’s qualifying session again presented the #39 crew with a damp track surface, and King was sent out first to capitalise on the tricky conditions, having accumulated the greatest wet-weather experience of the trio and already having proven quick in the Nova Proto in similar conditions at Mugello. Despite the Paul Ricard circuit favouring the more powerful LMP3 class cars, whose greater top speed was demonstrable on the long straights, King was pleased to put the Graff entry second in class and P4 overall at the end of his session and, when Rossi and Deguffroy performed equally well, the trio would line up fifth overall and third in NP02.
Having shown his pace in the timed session, Rossi began the race and was soon challenging for the outright lead after running long and saving both fuel and tyres on an alternate strategy to most of the frontrunners. With the order continually shuffling during the various pit-stop windows, the #39 car moved up and down the leaderboard, and was sitting fourth in class when King took over behind the wheel. With a potential podium in sight, the Briton was quickly up to speed, hunting down Graff team-mate and reigning ELMS LMP3 champion Gaël Julien before snatching third place from the Frenchman.
Next up the road was another of the multiple Graff entries and King wasn’t about to show any mercy as, once again, he chipped away at the time gap between them whilst increasing his advantage over the chasing pack. As the race ticked into its final quarter-hour, however, there was heartbreak for the #39 crew as driveshaft failure forced King to pull over and park up on the inside of Turn 1, unable to bring the stricken machine back to pit-lane.
“I was devastated,” the 24-year-old admitted. “The race had gone extremely well to that point and, having not lost a position throughout, it looked as though we were going to be rewarded with a podium. All three of us had fought tooth-and-nail to put Graff in that position, and the team’s strategy was mega, so it was a real shame to lose the result to a mechanical issue.”
With the Paul Ricard race marking the end of his season, King is currently spending his winter coaching drivers in the UAE, including working with the new Formula Woman initiative in Dubai, where all of his pupils finished in the top 10, including the outright winner. He continues to pursue a full-time sports prototype campaign, either in Europe or America, in 2025.
Image copyright Arthur Chopin
