Masson Not Considering Early Title Chance at Silverstone

Esteban Masson says he is not considering the prospect of wrapping up the European Le Mans Series title with a race to spare at Silverstone this weekend after back-to-back victories have put the team on the cusp of winning this year’s LMP2 crown.

Toyota junior driver Masson and his co-drivers in the No. 48 VDS Panis Oreca 07 Gibson, Charles Milesi and Oliver Gray, scored back-to-back wins at Imola in July and Spa last month to extend their championship lead heading into the final two rounds.

The trio are now 20 points clear of Inter Europol Competition drivers Tom Dillmann, Jakub Smiechowski and Nick Yelloly, meaning they could theoretically wrap up the title this weekend at Silverstone with another strong performance.

However, Masson says he prefers to take a “race-by-race approach” and is prepared for the title race to go down to the final event at Portimao in October.

“We have been doing really strong performances since the start of the season and I feel like we have a great shot at the championship,” Masson told Sportscar365.

“It was only at Paul Ricard we finished in P6 because we had a technical issue at the start and we lost a lap, basically, otherwise we were always P1 or P2.

“The results reflect the hard work of my teammates and the whole crew. But we need to keep focused on what we do. The operations have been really good every time, and we have a really good lineup thanks to the support of VDS as well.

“We were strong at Silverstone during testing, so we’ll focus on getting good points again. That’s the most important thing, and we’ll see how it turns out.

“I am really not thinking about the championship, which has been the case since the start of the season. We are focused race-by-race. There are a lot of strong teams. Inter Europol is a really top team, so I think we will fight until the end.”

VDS Panis’s strong run of form in ELMS follows the team’s heart-breaking defeat in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where a late suspension issue while Masson was at the wheel handed LMP2 victory to Inter Europol Competition.

Despite his anguish in the immediate aftermath of the events of Le Mans, Masson says the team’s recent success has given him fresh perspective.

“Obviously nothing can replace winning at Le Mans, but we switched our minds,” he said. “Le Mans is just one weekend and it’s not part of the championship, and we still finished P2, which is a good result even if it’s not what we wanted.

“I don’t look back at Le Mans with regret. I was super-disappointed just after the race, but now [looking back], I know we did a perfect race and it just didn’t work out, and we were able to switch our focus to the ELMS season, which is the most important.”

Masson described his first taste of Silverstone, a circuit he never drove in his single-seater career, in a test immediately following the Imola round in July as “amazing”, as he prepares for a crucial weekend for his title hopes at the British circuit.

“The test went very well, we were quite strong,” he said. “But it was amazing to drive an LMP2 around Silverstone. It was my first time there, and in the LMP2 it was really satisfying. We had both wet and dry weather, so it was good preparation.

“The car is honestly amazing, the best car I ever drove, and around a legendary track like this, where you can push in the high-speed corners, it was really lovely.”