King goes on the defensive to claim points in home GP

King’s qualifying time of 1:38.988 was just 0.561 off the pole-sitter Charles Leclerc and gave King a fourth-placed start in Saturday’s feature race.

And having taken the chequered flag in seventh place following a manoeuvre co-commentator Davide Valsecchi described as the “best defensive move” he had ever seen, King was able to reflect on a crazy race which saw him come under continued pressure from Artem Markelov, Sergio Canamasas, Luca Ghiotto and Nicholas Latifi.

“That was a tough race, really tough,” he said. “The first stint, the car felt really quick and I was pushing the guys in front and thought we could be in for a shot at the podium.

“Unfortunately, after the pitstops, we couldn’t make the hard tyre work for us and struggled for pace compared to the other guys. I defended as best as I could but ultimately couldn’t match them for pace and had to settle for seventh.”

Starting on the front row for the sprint race, the Harbury driver knew it was an excellent opportunity to convert his second place start into a win in front of his home fans.

Unfortunately, a poor start left him vulnerable to the flying Ghiotto and Oliver Rowland, who eventually got past him.

King stayed with Rowland and took to the outside at turn five in an attempt to make a move before the hanger straight.

However, Rowland squeezed him to the outside and the ensuing contact forced the disappointed 23-year-old to retire.

“My start wasn’t the best of the season and resulted in me losing a couple of places. I was fighting with Rowland through the first couple of corners and on the exit of turn four we were running side by side but he didn’t leave enough room for me, resulting in contact and too much damage to my car to carry on.”