​Tough start for Gunn in France

The number 34 entry, driven by Vale-based GT star, Ross Gunn, Pittard and Henrique Chaves, had been running strongly during the opening hour of the race before encountering problems towards the end of the first stint of the race and a mandatory driver change.

Running just outside of the top ten, the Aston Martin, started by Pittard, developed a power steering issue before a fire on the left hand side of the engine bay caused the car to exit the race early.

Gunn said afterwards: "The whole team did a great job to get us into a place where we were able to challenge for a top ten. It was disappointing to end the race so early, it wasn't our day and we will fight again for the next one."

The GT World Challenge Endurance Cup once again attracted a superb entry for its opening race event of the season. Fifty-four GT3 cars lined-up to compete in the three-hour race at the former home of the French Grand Prix, with victory going to the Rowe Racing BMW team.

The GT World Challenge season continues at Brands Hatch next month.

* Steller Motorsport start their Michelin Le Mans Cup season this weekend at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain.

The local team will field two cars in the Automobile Club de l'Ouest sanctioned event, an LMP3 prototype and a GT3 car.

The team's LMP3 will be driven by Sennan Fielding and Sylvain Guintoli, while Darren Malkin and Alex Aka will drive the team's race-winning Audi R8 GT3.

*Dan Fox will race at Team Fox Motorsport Ray in the opening rounds of the United Formula Ford Championship at Silverstone on Saturday.

Fox will contest two races for Formula Ford 1600 cars around the 1.6-mile Silverstone National Circuit - the second FF1600 race of the day being for the Jim Walsh Trophy.