The great comeback of Jordan King

Re-joining your old team and achieving a podium finish in just the second round of the season would kind of sound like a love story to some, but for Jordan King it’s less complicated than that - he just “enjoys racing cars.”

The British driver only re-signed for MP Motorsport in March, following a season in IndyCar racing, but the relationship between himself and the Dutch team stretches way back. The 25-year-old originally drove for the team seven years ago in Formula Renault 2.0, and then raced for them in FIA Formula 2 in 2017.

On the notion of a romantic return, he said: “No, but I was really happy after today, both on a personal level and also for the team. They have worked really hard and they are a great bunch of guys, who deserve some good results.

“They were just as happy in third, as they would have been to get second, especially with how the race panned out. We thought a top ten would have been good after corner one really.

“So yeah I am enjoying it. I always enjoy racing cars and when you race at the front it is always good.”

The British driver qualified in fifth place ahead of what would pan out to be a dramatic Feature Race: on Lap 1 at Turn 1, he was catapulted towards the back of the pack, after being struck not once, but twice in quick succession.

The MP Motorsport man quickly made his way back through the field with a series of slick overtakes, before the addition of a Safety Car into the mix sliced the breathing space between himself and those in-front.

He continued: “Yeah it was an absolute disaster start laughs. We got hit twice at Turn 1: we were hit from behind and then hit again from the side as I was kind of going off the track. I have watched the video and it’s just two people who have gone in there about 20mph too fast, which was obviously a bit annoying.

“Luckily we didn’t get any serious damage, but we were back in 18th place or something by Turn 1. After that we had to work our way through the field and it was pretty good, we had some good pace and overall were solid.

“On the option tyres at the start of the race, we had some pretty good pace, and I think that I got myself back into the top 10 afterwards. I overtook a few more people on the prime tyre and the safety car then helped me out a bit because it bunched a few of us up. There were two short restarts at the end and I picked up a couple more places.”

Having only re-joined MP Motorsport in March, it’s early days for King and his return to F2, but the partnership has proved fruitful so far this weekend, with fifth place in Qualifying and a podium position in the Feature Race.

The 25-year-old will start from sixth in the Sprint Race on the reverse grid tomorrow and having seen how today’s battle played out, could be optimistic of ruffling a few feathers once again.

“I was a little bit sceptical coming into this weekend,” King admitted. “It was a bit last minute for me to jump in this car anyway and I have not been to this circuit in 18 months. It is obviously a new car and everything, so there are still a lot of new things. Even though I am technically not a rookie, I suppose I am in this car.

“It is going to be tricky for everybody tomorrow. You have got some people at the front who qualified at the back, so maybe their outright pace isn’t that good, but they obviously had a good race. You have then got a couple people behind me who are clearly quite quick, because they finished first and second.

“It is going to be a bit of a mixed one and it is a strange race, as everyone is always saying. It’s one of those where anything can happen and if you keep your nose clean and get around, then you can have a good result.”