After a two-day Prologue, followed by two free practice sessions on the Barcelona circuit, Job van Uitert qualified the #65 Oreca fifth on the grid. Together with his two new team-mates, they reached the second step of the podium in the Pro category.

Our Silver driver, Manuel Maldonado, started the race from the 5th position of the grid. The Safety Car was out within the first few seconds of racing. After a first stint slowed down by an amateur driver, the team did the right strategy call around the first pit stop where Maldonado jumped into P1. But he got a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane. He rejoined the race in P6. After 42 laps on track and a very solid stint, he passed the car over to Tijmen Van Der Helm who started his stint in 5th position and moved up to 4th. After an off-track from the race leader, the young Dutchman moved up to 2nd position in his class (3rd overall). He showed good pace throughout his stints. With 80 minutes left in the race, Job van Uitert jumped into the Oreca after a great pit-stop operated by the mechanics. Few precious seconds were gained there, but a Full Course Yellow came then at the wrong time for us and costed us a position. Despite a damaged car floor, Job drove like hell – as usual - to cross the chequered flag in second position of the PRO category (5th overall).

Olivier Panis - Team Principal :

"It was an intense week for the whole team, engineers, mechanics and drivers who all did a remarkable job. This second place is the result of our joint commitment. As far as our new drivers are concerned, Manuel has risen over the days since he joined the team. He did some very solid stints, and it's a real shame that he got a drive-through at the early stage of the race, but he didn't give up afterwards and was very fast in traffic. A proof of his great determination. The same goes for Tijmen. He was very consistent; he didn't make any mistakes, and he was right there within the team. I am very happy with these two new (young) recruits. Regarding Job, it wasn't any surprise to see him so excellent on the track, especially as we did not make life easy for him by giving him the same set of tyres for his two stints. Our mechanics, as in previous seasons, are still incredible in their precision and rapidity during the pitstops.

We have the right team and crew to do great things at Le Mans! "

Manuel Maldonado :

Quite a positive day at the end. P2 in Class. We tried to get the maximum result given the circumstances. We had an unlucky start of the race. I got a Drive Through for speeding in the pitlane on my first pitstop. Not ideal but I tried to recover in the second stint. The pace was good. I felt comfortable in the car. At the end, we managed to get some good points. I am really happy within the team. They did a great job."

Tijmen Van Der Helm :

"The race went pretty well. We got some troubles at the start of the race, but then we got the pace to come back to the P2 in the Pro Class. The win is of course our goal and we know what we have to do to achieve it."

Job Van Uitert :

"I think at the end it's a race with decent result and good points for the championship. And it's positive. We know where we need to improve. There are still some places where we were not optimum today. We have some time to analyze it before the next ELMS race. The mechanics did a great job. No mistakes in the pitstop. The next challenge now is the 24 Hours of Le Mans."