King survives late downpour to seal Silverstone success

HARBURY'S Jordan King mastered the tricky conditions as he racked up his second GP2 win in as many weekends at Silverstone on Sunday.

Starting from pole position for the second of the two races, the Racing Engineering driver led throughout the 21-lap contest to take victory and move up to sixth in the drivers’ standings.

King is now just one point adrift of team-mate Norman Nato and only 15 off the championship lead, after five of the series’ 11 rounds.

A rain shower with just three laps remaining tested King’s nerves, but the former British Formula 3 champion held on to beat Italian Luca Ghiotto, runner-up in last year’s GP3 series, by half a second.

“It was a fantastic feeling to be sitting on pole position at Silverstone in front of the home crowd,” said a delighted King.

“I made a good start and concentrated on getting my head down, controlling the pace and reeling off the laps.

"Having won in Austria last weekend I felt under less pressure. I knew how to win a GP2 race from the front, so I was focused on doing just that once more.

“Luca was catching me at quite a rate,” King added.

“So I had to drive cleverly to make sure I kept in front. It was a case of looking after the tyres in some places and making sure I was out of reach of an attack for the lead in others.”

The next round of the GP2 Series takes place at the Hungaroring on 23rd-24th July.