Duncan showed great pace and determination as the Blancpain Endurance Series visited the Circuit Paul Ricard for its third round, carving through the field after a lengthy pitstop left his McLaren MP4-12C near to last place.

Plenty of overtaking for Duncan as he fought back through the field at Paul Ricard

A stunning recovery drive saw him climb from 42nd to 18th before handing over to team-mate Greg Demoustier. The Frenchman made up further ground in the final stint, meaning the pair finished as the top-placed McLaren, 13th overall and eighth in class.

Remarkably, the performance came with very little running in practice for the car – especially for Duncan, whose first significant laps of the weekend came during qualifying.

He said: “Greg did not have many laps in the Bronze practice session, but we were still able to spot and fix a few issues.

“Overall it was a pretty tough weekend for us. For myself, after no laps in practice I was happy with my quali lap. With a few changes the race was looking good.

“Greg got caught up in a battle early on and thought he had damage, which meant we lost three mins in the pits. After that, my stint was great fun, going from P42 to P18.

“With a good last stint we ended up finishing P13 overall and P8 in class. Cut out the few issues and we would have been right up there with the podium-finishers.

“Now bring on Spa!”

The next race in the Blancpain Endurance Series will be at Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday July 29th.

•   Filed under: Blancpain Endurance Series
•   Tagged as: ART Grand Prix, Circuit Paul Ricard