Perez eyes return to form after fantastic testing sessions

The 17-year-old Perez endured a tough time at Oulton Park in Cheshire for the last two rounds of the Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup Championship, where he finished only ninth and 11th in the two races. It left him in eighth place in the overall standings with 121 points, 94 behind the leader.

However, his confidence was restored by five terrific sessions at the Croft track in North Yorkshire, where the next two rounds take place on Saturday and Sunday, alongside the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, and will be shown live on ITV4.

In his Ginetta G55 race car, Perez, who races for the JHR Developments team, consistently hit the top five of the 20 cars in action and clocked the second and third fastest times of the day.

“I was pleased with how testing went,” he said. “Hopefully, I can carry that on through into the race weekend. The car is performing very well and my team are doing a great job on it.”

At Oulton Park, Perez started from the sixth row on the grid, and by the end of the first lap, he had dropped from 11th to 13th. He moved his way back to 11th by the third lap and he was ninth by the end of lap ten, where he remained until the end of the 25-minute race.

For race two, he started on the fourth row of the grid, but he soon hit trouble, losing five places by the end of the opening lap. By lap five, he had moved to 12th before stepping up another position before the chequered flag.

Perez commented: “The weekend was a massive learning curve for me. Oulton Park is a difficult place to overtake. It’s about getting everything right to stand me in good stead for the future. But I am improving every time.”

With regard to his hopes of winning the Supercup title, he added: “We are looking at each race separately at the moment. I just want to make sure we keep improving and get the best results possible.” JHR Developments currently lead the team standings.