​Perez produces great display to win in Peter Cup in France

It was four out of four outright race wins in the Elite grading for the 23-year-old driver, smashing every round of the European single make Porsche 911 2-litre short wheelbase championship, prepared by Tuthill Porsche in accordance with FIA pre-66 regulations.

Perez was along side his regular classic endurance race driver, Nottinghamshire’s George Gamble, who races in the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship and recently competed the weekend before at Donington Park.

Once again, the two-day racing format made for a much more efficient timescale, compared with the three days of the previous seasons, with practice and qualifying on Friday and then the 90-minute race itself at 4pm on the Saturday afternoon.

Friday’s free practice saw Perez on his own after Gamble’s flight was delayed, but it didn’t bother him one bit. He was fastest in the three sectors of the 3.8km long circuit competing 13 laps at speeds around 128.5kph and sealed a second fastest time during the 40-minute session on lap two with a time of 2.42:655s.

The 30-minute qualifying session later on Friday saw Gamble in the seat as well. Perez was in command first taking a fastest time on lap 2 of 2.44:147s. After a satisfying six laps, Gamble climbed into the cockpit for the last five laps of the session, and a time of 2.44:610s. These combined times put them in pole position for Saturday’s raceday.

It was warm and dry, Perez lined up on the grid P1 alongside fellow brit racer Kyle Tilley.

Perez took the first stint and has the lights went out so did he, as he had a great start and kept hold of the lead until a pit stop end of lap 8, a splash of fuel and back out in second spot retaining and holding off any competition until the obligatory driver change window, end of lap 15.

Gamble jumped in with new tyres and more fuel onboard, he exited the pit lane a lap behind, the timeframe window for pit stops and driver changes was hectic and started to take advantage of cars pitting.

A lap later Gamble had made up essential time from P11 to P8, Gamble was on it, into fifth spot by lap 18. Two laps later he was on the of the tail of frontrunner Evgeny Kireev.

By lap 25 was into P1, after a momentous overtake on Kireev, Gamble remaining there defending Kireev to take the chequered flag to make it top spot on the podium.

The race couldn’t have gone any better for them both, it saw Perez and Gamble getting five fastest lap sessions, Perez in the earlier stages on laps two and three, Gamble sealing it all on laps 13, 14 and 16 with top speeds of 128.6kph.

Afterwards Perez said: “What a race, we both sealed it. The car ran faultlessly throughout and thanks to the team for keeping us up in front.

"It’s been a great season with four wins and let’s hope we can do the same in Estoril.”

Everything is to play for Perez in the next and final round, at Estoril on 6-8th October but without Gamble who will be out on the BTCC at Brands Hatch.