Andrew Watson and Garage 59 are prepared for the most exciting round of the Blancpain GT season-to-date with the 1,000km of Paul Ricard taking place this weekend.
The six-hour French endurance race will see Andrew and his team-mates Côme Ledogar and Jonny Adam take their Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 into the darkness as France’s premier racing venue plays host to the third round of the 2019 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup - which is seen as the warmup for the season’s showpiece event, the 24 Hours of Spa.
Last time out at Silverstone, Watson and the team had a disappointing result with an unavoidable, race-ending accident. However, determined to bounce back with a strong result, the Aston Martin Racing Junior driver is looking to replicate the strong pace he and the team showed at the opening round in Monza, coupled with a return to a happy hunting ground.
With focus returning to Paul Ricard, Waston is no stranger to success at the 15-turn, 3.63-mile circuit. Last year, he recorded a podium finish in the race, marking his first overall podium in the Blancpain GT Series after the Howdens-sponsored driver displayed his expertise in the race and the qualifying session by claiming provisional pole position in his qualifying group, which later resulted in a front-row start.
After the Garage 59 team’s massive efforts to repair the #59 Aston Martin, the team will now join this weekend’s 48 other entrants that take to the grid.
“This was an exciting race last year and I have very fond memories of the circuit,” Andrew says. “The fact that I collected my first overall podium here obviously makes the circuit really special for me and we have already had some good testing mileage around here in our new Aston Martin.
“We had some bad luck at Silverstone which was disappointing, but the team have done an incredible job getting the car ready and we’re ready to get back out there and bounce back up the championship standings.”
Andrew is now set for the weekend, with the endurance race commencing at 17:00 BST on June 1st, with the race expected to last six hours. Beforehand, qualifying for the event will take place on Saturday morning at 09:30.