Racing Engineering driver Jordan King was happy with his GP2 series weekend at Silverstone despite an incident with Frenchman Arthur Pic on the final lap of Saturday’s feature race which saw the twenty-one year old sent spinning at the last corner. Although the Englishman came away from his home race empty handed, his performance on both Saturday and Sunday was something for King to be positive about.
After a strong start from 13th on the grid, King found himself in the top 10 during Saturday’s feature race within the first five laps thanks to strategic overtaking. King continued to have strong pace before he took his first pit stop.
With his early stop, King looked in good shape to take his maiden GP2 series podium in front of his home crowd on the hard compound tyres.
Although King had kept out of trouble and tactical thinking from both driver and team saw him in third for a period of the race, it was difficult for the Racing Engineering rookie to keep drivers on fresh rubber behind when his tyres began to suffer from degradation. Soon King had fallen back into sixth and was doing his best to keep Arthur Pic at bay as the race reached its closing stages.
On the final lap and into the final corner, Pic made a bold move which King could not defend from as the two made contact and the Brit was sent spinning. Facing the wrong way, King watched as his rivals passed him one by one to cross the line.
“I don’t think Arthur did it maliciously,” King said when talking about the incident with the Campos Racing driver. “It’s just a shame that after I’d gone the whole race without any contact it happened on the last lap. I’m still pleased with our race pace, team tactics and overtaking.”
Starting from 22nd for the sprint race on Sunday meant King had a lot of work to do but in true racing style, the rookie took on the challenge and after a flying start he found himself in 14th after just four laps. Another four laps later and the Englishman was fighting for a top 10 position.
In the end, the Racing Engineering driver settled for tenth behind championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne, making up a total of twelve places in the twenty one lap race.
After Sunday’s race, King appeared upbeat about the result: “…I was constantly attacking and although it’s frustrating that we didn’t walk away with silverware, I know we did a very good job and we’re in a good position for the next round in Hungary.”
Round six of the GP2 series will take place on 24-26 July, at the Hungaroring.
