King shines on the streets of Monaco
Holyport’s Harry picks up ‘solid points’ in Supercup bid
Holyport's Harry King shone on the streets of Monaco this weekend, maintaining his strong start to the Mobil 1 Porsche Supercup season with a top five finish. The event, a pre-cursor to the rain affected F1 Monaco Grand Prix, saw King return to the scene of his Supercup debut last year and, once again, he performed creditably well behind the wheel of his BWT Lechner Racing engine.
The BRDC Superstar headed into the weekend off the back of a fine performance in the opening round at Imola where he secured his maiden podium finish with a strong run to third place.
King enjoyed a trouble-free run in free practice, setting the 14th best time before heading into Friday's qualifying session. Qualifying proved to be typically chaotic around the tight and twisty street circuit, and a red flag hampered drivers in their bid to put down a quick and clean circuit. King did manage to lay down a target time for his rivals as he put the car on provisional pole, however, as the clock ticked down to the end of the session, Larry ten Voorde edged ahead of him into pole. A small error heading up towards Casino Square then thwarted the Briton's hopes of regaining pole and meant he had to settle for second.
He then received a post-session penalty for a yellow flag infringement which meant he had to start the race from fifth place and, despite his best efforts to make up ground, he would spend the entire 17 lap encounter trying to find a way past team-mate Dylan Pereira. The points scored from the weekend leave Harry well placed in the standings ahead of his home meeting at Silverstone in early July.
“I’m pleased with the performance we showed in the car this weekend and to set the second quickest time in qualifying on my second visit to a circuit as challenging as Monaco was something I was really happy with,” he said.
“The three-place grid penalty was ultimately what decided my race, because we all know how difficult it is to overtake around the circuit and there was never really the opportunity to maximise the pace that I knew I was capable of, and which we’d showed on Friday.
“It was quite a simple and straightforward race and fifth is more solid points, even though I know we would have had a podium finish had we been able to start from the front row of the grid. Two rounds into the season however, I think we have shown what we are capable of and I’m confident that I’ll be able to put on a good show and hopefully push for my maiden win when we get to Silverstone for round three.”