I joined JMW Motorsport for the European Le Mans Series exactly one year ago at the Paul Ricard circuit in France – it was my first experience in the series and there were so many unknowns for me. We went on to secure a podium finish in our first event together and here we are just off the back of the 4 Hours of Paul Ricard, 12 months on. This time round we were fighting for the GTE title and this time we made sure we came away from France victorious!

After our win this season at the Red Bull Ring we were feeling really together as a team – it’s nice waking up on race day and feeling complete confidence in your team and car and the crew certainly demonstrated their skill when we encountered issues with the throttle actuator on our Ferrari 458 GTE during Free Practice 1 and 2.

The car went into what I would describe as a “limp home” mode, so we spent 90% of both sessions in the pits missing valuable track time. The JMW team with help from Ferrari engineers managed to get to the bottom of the problem just before Qualifying on Saturday. It was a little concerning at times seeing the engine bay surrounded by 8 team members all doing individual jobs, but the team used their wealth of expertise and experience to locate and fix the issue just in time!

With only a few laps practice between us all Andrea managed to qualify the JMW Ferrari 4th, a great performance which put us right in contention.

The strategy for Sunday’s race was quite complex with many potential scenarios – the race was set to start at 14.00, right in the heat of the day so we were concerned about tyre degradation in the 32 degree temperature.

Fuel was also a head scratcher as it looked likely that we would need to make one extra pit stop for a splash of fuel. Thankfully our engineer and strategist Hugues had worked out all the numbers so we had all bases covered.

My job was to start and finish the race with Rob and Andrea taking a stint each in the middle. Our championship rivals in the #99 Aston Martin V8 Vantage and the #56 AT Racing Ferrari were ahead on the first two rows and my job was to clear them during the first stint.

This race start was particularly manic – as we charged down towards turn 1 we were four, maybe five abreast and the GTE class were in amongst the LMP3 cars ahead. I got through unscathed and managed to sneak ahead of the #99 Aston Martin, but at turn 5 an LMP3 car spun up ahead, causing everyone to bunch up,  so  avoiding action was necessary, going wide before re-joining at turn 6.

On the 1km Mistral Straight I got tucked in behind an LMP3 car and made good use of the slip stream, allowing me to set up a move on the AT Ferrari going in to turn 10. Next up was Aaron Scott, who had made a superb start from 3rd on the grid to take the lead; I sat in behind him to allow the first few laps to settle and allow my tyres to come good,  then the team then gave me the signal over the radio and so I began to up the pressure.

As we entered the straight on lap 6 I got tucked in behind Aaron’s rear bumper and as we reached 190mph the slipstream really started to work.  Showing  my nose on the approach to the 5th gear Signes corner Aaron defended his line, but he gave me good racing room and I slotted past.

By this time the LMP2 front runners were starting to lap the field and as I kept my head down to put in some consistent laps I needed to keep one eye on the rear view mirror!!

We rattled through our strategy with Rob taking the reins after 1 hour and doing a superb job of building our lead, then we made good use of a Full Course Yellow situation and pitted Rob for Andrea to start stint three.

Andrea laid down a blistering pace but it was becoming clear that the #60 Formula Racing Ferrari was going to fight us right to the end. Andrea was called back in with 75 minutes remaining and I took to the track with a gap of 20 seconds to Mikkel Mac in the Ferrari behind. Holding our 20 second cushion, we approached the final stages, despite the gap fluctuating up and down as we both encountered traffic and tyre issues.

There was still had one more pit stop to make as we didn’t have enough fuel to last the race and the team kept me out until the last litre of fuel was remaining as they were hoping for another Full Course Yellow situation which would be the most efficient time to pit.

With 10 minutes remaining we made our stop and poured in just enough fuel to see me through and as I re-joined the track, Mikkel Mac, who had taken the lead momentarily was pitting for his own splash and dash.

From the outside it may have looked like we were losing the race with our last minute pit stop, but we had a good feeling that #60 was on the same strategy! 

It was time to bring the JMW Ferrari home and as I passed the chequered flag the whole team were on the pit wall cheering.

That’s two wins in a row and we also leap-frogged our rivals to take the championship lead by 5 points – what a result! 

Standing on the podium with Rob, Andrea and our team owner Jim, while looking down at the rest of crew cheering, was quite a feeling!

We have been together for a full year now, but it feels like we are just getting started as  we head towards Round 5 at Spa-Francorchamps on September the 24th/25th and we must keep pushing!

Next up in my calendar is the Barcelona 24 Hours this weekend in the MJC Ferrari 458 GTE.