Nick Jones and Scott Malvern played a starring role in last weekend’s Michelin Le Mans Cup event at Circuit Paul Ricard, with the pair coming agonisingly close to sealing their first podium finish of the year in the SD Sealants-backed Porsche, only for contact to deny them.
Jones and Malvern showed both impressive speed and racecraft during the second Le Mans Cup outing of the season, with the SD Porsche being a constant threat to the top spots in Southern France. With the car running third late in the race, and Malvern fending off the rival Ferraris in a heroic display of defensive driving, a hit from one of the chasing cars sent the Porsche wide in the final minutes, with the resulting delay and worsening damage leaving the car sixth at the flag. A penalty for the offending Ferrari did at least move Jones and Malvern back to fifth, but the pair still deserved more after what was a superb display.
The weekend began strongly for the pair, with Jones showing much-improved pace over his visit to the track last year, performing well across Friday’s practice sessions and then qualifying the High Class Racing-run Porsche a strong sixth on the grid in what was a very tight session.
Things then got even better when Jones enjoyed a superb opening stint in the race, judging the chaotic opening stages brilliantly to scythe past first Claude Bovet’s Aston Martin, then Andrew Gilbert’s Ferrari and the Steller Motorsport Audi in the hands of Darren Malkin to run an early third. From there, Jones set about holding off his pursuers for much of the first half of the race. Only Malkin managed to find a way past the Porsche, and even then the place was swiftly regained when the Audi was handed a penalty for contact with a Ferrari as it pushed to re-catch Jones ahead.
The High Class Racing team performed a textbook pit stop when Jones pitted at half distance to hand to Malvern, and got the Porsche back out in third, but with a pair of Ferraris right behind, driven by both Fran Rueda and Riccardo Agostini.
With the Ferraris still enjoying an ultimate pace advantage over a lap of Circuit Paul Ricard, Agostini soon latched onto the rear of the SD Porsche to begin what would be an incredible duel across the final 45 minutes. Slight damage from the opening half of the race had unsettled the Porsche’s bonnet, leading the corner to flip up, which both added more drag on the long Mistral Straight, and also obscured some of Malvern’s view, making things even more difficult.
Malvern made the Porsche as wide as he could, repeatedly fending off Agostini’s advances with great defensive driving through the first sector. When Agostini did find a way past the Porsche in traffic heading onto the Mistral, Malvern’s quick thinking helped him duck behind a lapping LMP3 prototype and use the resulting aerodynamic tow to slip back past the Ferrari in a brilliant piece of tactical driving.
It looked as if Jones and Malvern would hold on when the clock ticked down to the final minutes, only for the frustrated Ferrari to make an ill-timed lunge into turn two, clout the rear of the Porsche and pitch Malvern wide, finally opening the door. To make matters worse, Rueda and David Fumanelli also followed Agostini through as the Porsche lost momentum following the hit, leaving Jones and Malvern a disappointed sixth. A post-race penalty for Agostini after the hit did move the pair up to fifth, but both the drivers and team were deserving of more after such a great effort.
Nick Jones said: “Overall it was a great weekend for the whole team. Everybody put in some great work and we enjoyed a fast car all weekend, so there are loads of positives to take away from this. We ran third until the final five minutes when some abuse from another car effectively ruined what could have been a mega result, and we ended up with quite a bit of damage, but that’s the way this sport goes sometimes. I was really happy with my stint, I got involved and was mixing it with the top cars and took my chances when they came along. I feel we deserved a podium, but we’ll move on to the next race at Le Mans.”
Scott Malvern added: “That was one of the hardest races I’ve been involved in. Nick did a superb job during his first stint, got ahead of some very quick cars and stayed there, putting up a great defence and never losing his head when things got tricky. When I got in, I had the Ferraris all over me and I couldn’t pull away, especially with the bonnet gradually getting looser, which was both hurting the aero and meant I couldn’t see the apex of any right-hand corners. I got several hits from the Ferrari that damaged the rear diffuser, so the balance was pretty bad by the end, and then came the big lunge that ran me off the road. I did all I could, and was pretty gutted we missed the podium due to somebody simply crashing into us. But the whole team did such a great job and the car was superb. The results will come if we keep doing the things we did this weekend.”
The next round of the Michelin Le Mans Cup takes place at the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe in central France, where the grid will enjoy two hour-long races in support of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
