Sir Chris Hoy is a winner for Nissan at ELMS at Silverstone

14/04/2015 10:04 Share

Sir Chris Hoy won the opening round of the European Le Mans Series at Silverstone yesterday with his teammate Charlie Robertson.

Hoy and Robertson drove the #3 Ginetta-Nissan to victory in the four-hour race, which marks the next step for Hoy on the road to 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours with Nissan.

Robertson sat behind the wheel at the start of the race and made a great start, setting Hoy up well for the middle stint of the race. Hoy, who spent almost two hours in the driver's seat, learnt a lot about endurance racing in that time.

He said: "I knew we had a good chance of making the podium when Charlie got that great start and extended the lead, I knew I had to hang onto it. I had some scary moments a couple of spins when the tyres started to go off but other than that I had a great time and I really enjoyed it.

"It's the longest stint I've done in a racing car and I have the new challenge of the GT cars and the P2 cars around me too. Everything was new to me and it was an amazing experience. The car is great to drive, especially when it's on fresh tyres and for a novice like me to be able to come and race it, it shows how well the car is built."

Driving the #2 sister Ginetta-Nissan was 2014 GT Academy Europe winner Gatean Paletou, who finished in second place with team mate Mike Simpson. Paletou swapped late to LM P3, only a few months on from winning Nissan's virtual-to-reality competition.

The new LM P3 cars, exclusively powered by Nissan, look set to become an important part of sports car racing.

"It's a stepping stone towards competing at Le Mans as it bridges the gap from GT3 to the LM P2 car that I want to race at Le Mans," explained Hoy. "I'm just trying to take in as much information and experience as I can from guys like Charlie and from GT Academy and this has been a great start!"