George King continued his stellar start to 2022 by taking two top-three finishes on his first outing in the Ligier European Series at Paul Ricard over the Easter weekend.

Having convincingly claimed his first motorsport title with overall success in the Gulf Radical Cup during the 'winter' season, the rising British talent has returned to Europe to contest the one-make Ligier series as another stepping stone towards his ultimate goal of racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship and at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Now in its third season, the Ligier European Series features two distinct classes for the French brand's sports prototype and GT models, with King sharing the Monza Garage team's JSP4 prototype with Ronnie Valori in pursuit of a prize drive in the 2023 Michelin Le Mans Cup.

Having inched themselves up the order through the course of two 40-minute practice sessions, the pair were disappointed to only place sixth on the grid for race one, but King then defied the fact that he was less familiar with both the car and the Paul Ricard circuit than some of his rivals to put the black #23 machine second overall in the second session, securing a front row start on his first appearance.

With Valori taking the start in the first of the weekend's two races, the Monza Garage car moved into the podium fight during the opening half of the one-hour event, but a mix-up at the mandatory driver change saw King rejoin the race with a stop-go penalty hanging over the #23. Once served, the Briton found himself down in fifth place, but produced a charging drive to overcome a one-minute deficit to the cars ahead of him, snatching third place and the final step of the podium with 12 minutes remaining in the race, coming home just a tenth of a second shy of a higher position.

Boosted by that performance, a confident King took the start of race two later in the day and, after a good getaway, comfortably maintained his second position through to the driver change. His hard work in breaking away from third place was undone by a full course caution period, however, and when Valori was passed at the restart, a second podium looked in jeopardy until the Italian regained one spot in the closing stages to repeat the team's result from race one.

"What an awesome weekend, driving in such a prestige series and being a part of the European Le Mans Series paddock," King enthused. "Despite the fact that I was less familiar with both the JSP4 and the circuit than some others, I think we showed good pace throughout, and qualifying P2 for the second race was perhaps beyond my own expectations.

"That said, I really think we could have had two second place finishes this weekend, with the drive-through penalty in race one and the full course yellow in race two being the deciding factors between which step of the podium we stood on. Clawing back the deficit to reach third overall in race one was particularly thrilling, as was the battle for the lead in the first part of race two. All in all, it was a good weekend given what was thrown at us, but we've shown that there’s plenty more to come. Now it's onto Imola in just under a month to try for the top step!"

Round two of the Ligier European Series takes place at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola over the weekend of 13-14 May.