​Perez takes victory at Spa-Francorchamps

Just five weeks after a thrilling nose to tail race at the home of the Tuscan Grand Prix – Mugello – the 2 Litre Cup circus was back in action in front of capacity crowds at the infamous Spa-Francorchamps circuit last weekend – popularly ‘the best F1 circuit in the world’.

Once again, the two day 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.

Qualifying saw overall Championship leaders Perez and team-mate George Gamble meet their Elite grading with another pole position, their time of 3.03 (on brand new tyres) nearly three seconds slower than 2022’s pole time by Andrew Jordan, set on buffed tyres.

Race day was warm and dry – right up until about 20 minutes before the 2 Litre Cup race started when a deluge of rain led to some last minute setting changes that varied from car to car as teams softened dampers, disconnected anti-roll bars and changed the brake balance to the rear, pre-grid.

Perez took an immediate lead that he would hold for the first ten laps as several battles formed behind him.

However, with a 40 second penalty for the all-Elite no 77 car of Perez and Gamble, Christian Coll emerged with a lead of more than 50 seconds. With just 12 laps remaining, Gamble was really going to need to hit it to catch let alone pass Coll and so it proved with Gamble just not able to cut the gap enough.

Tragically for Coll, though, he had been sanctioned twice for exceeding track limits and thus a 45 second penalty was handed to him, leaving Perez and Gamble to drive calmly to take their second win this year from two starts.

The next round is at the wonderful Dijon circuit in France in just two weeks’ time on June 2-3, with practice and qualifying on the Friday again and then race on Saturday afternoon.

That will be followed by the challenge of the Paul Ricard circuit in France on September 1-2 and then Estoril in Portugal will welcome the drivers on October 7-8.