Australian Racing Driver Dylan Young has once again cracked the top 6 last weekend during the second round of the the 2024 Ligier European Series from May 3-4 at the Paul Ricard F1 Circuit in the South of France.
Young, the only Aussie in the Championship, once again shared the #3 Ligier JS P4 in the all Pro Class with Romanian driver Alin Fulga for the Smart Driving Team. The duo managed a P7 in Race 1, with their run hampered by a questionable penalty, and P6 for Race 2 amongst the 20 car field.
The two free practice sessions ran without incident on the 5.771km circuit in Le Castellet, Var, near Marseille.
Young was then looking good for a top 5 qualifying performance but was extremely unlucky to catch a red flag just before completing his fastest lap and had to settle for P7 on the grid for the opening race of the weekend.
The Aussie, backed by major partner Marbanc International and major support partner Boxer Brewing Co. would take the wheel for the start of Race 1 whereas Young's team mate Fulga backed that up with a P8 in qualifying for Race 2's grid with the Romanian set to take the start for Saturday's final race.
Dylan got a great start in Race 1, diving up the inside to move up to P6 at the first corner. Whilst he got boxed out at Turn 4, moving back to P7, Young then had a strong first stint and managed to move up to P4 as he came in for the mid race driver swap, handing the car over to Fulga. However, an extremely dubious penalty was given to the #3 pair for gaining an advantage, even surprising the commentators who noted that Young correctly took to the marked escape road as per the regulations after an off on lap 6. The penalty unfortunately dropped Young and Fulga down to P9 after their pit stop but they managed to climb back to P7 at the chequered flag.
Race 2 saw Fulga take the start as the lights went out in much hotter conditions compared to the morning's race. It was a much more uneventful race for the #3 car, with Fulga pitting in P6 to hand the car over to Young. Young then went on a mission to catch P5, and whilst lapping over a second faster to the car ahead, he ran out of laps to close the position and would settle for a strong P6 at the finish.
The next round of the Ligier European Series is the long-awaited Le Mans Heat on 9 June, which will be the curtain raiser for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Dylan Young:
"Similar to Barcelona, I'm really pleased but have some mixed emotions after the weekend. I feel our one lap pace is pretty good considering the huge amounts of testing we haven't been able to do compared to our competitors. I was heading for a pretty good quali but caught the red flag at exactly the wrong time unfortunately. We've been really unlucky with the races and some penalties handed out which I don't agree with at all but that's racing. I'm sure we'll be on the lucky side of things moving forward and so we will keep pushing to where we should be!"
"I'm super excited for the next round at Le Mans. I've driven part of the track (Le Mans Bugatti circuit) in Formula 3 where I was on the podium all 3 races back in 2021 but can't wait to experience the full Le Mans 24 hour circuit for the first time. It's definitely a bucket list track to tick off so it'll be insane and it wouldn't be possible without my amazing partners. A big thank you to my team mate and the team for this weekend and let's get back on it at Le Mans next month!"
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