GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup: Paul Ricard

Lamborghini Factory Driver, Scot Sandy Mitchell, impresses in European Pro Opener at Paul Ricard with top Italian Team VSR.

Sandy made an impressive start to his 2025 PRO campaign in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup. The 25-year-old from Forfar was one of the fastest drivers both during qualifying, and the six-hour race at Paul Ricard.

Partnering fellow Lamborghini factory drivers, Italian Marco Mapelli and Frenchman Franck Perera in the No163 Lamborghini Huracan EVO2 GT3 prepared by top Italian team VSR, Sandy posted a personal best in the race of 1min 55.409secs on the sweeping 3.5-mile circuit. The Scot also clocked the third-quickest time in his qualifying session with a 1:54.109s.

Based on the three drivers’ combined qualifying times, Sandy started the #163 from seventh on the 59-car grid for the traditional season-opener in the south of France, and the Scot was quickly elevated to sixth when the #59 McLaren was forced to retire. For the next 52-minutes of his opening 60-minute stint Sandy hounded the rear bumper of the #22 Porsche in fifth, being rarely less than a second behind. Such was the former British GT champ’s commitment that he also fended off a robust overtaking attempt by the #96 Porsche which forced the Scot’s Lamborghini sideways off the track.

Sandy: “It was a great battle with the two Porsches,” personally-backed by Tunnocks and Dama Fortuna Tequila, said. “While I was quicker through the corners, the #22 always had that little bit extra speed on the straights. And there was no way I was letting the #96 get past me.”

Following two short Full Course Yellow periods in the second 30-minutes of the race, the cars ahead of Sandy pitted leaving the Scot the fastest man on-track before he too pitted for fuel and tyres on lap 28. Hampered by pitlane traffic, the Scot rejoined for his second 60-minute stint in 14th. Undaunted, Sandy was immediately back in the groove rattling of a series of personal fastest laps and after 30-minutes had climbed back to 10th, 12.6s behind the #51 Ferrari in ninth. By the time the Ferrari pitted with four hours and four minutes remaining, Sandy had slashed the gap to just 1.4s. And as the second round of pitstops unfolded, the Scot closed the gap further to the #63 factory Lamborghini from 1.139s to 0.8. With three hours and 59 minutes remaining, Sandy pitted from fifth to hand the car to Mapelli.

Sandy: “I thoroughly enjoyed my two hours racing. We showed the car has the pace to fight with the leading PRO cars, but we were just unfortunate at my first pitstop that we dropped so much time with traffic. Marco and Franck drove brilliantly through their double stints, but in the end we finished just outside the top 10 and missed out on scoring championship points.”

Sandy returns to the Endurance Cup with VSR on June 1 at Monza, but before that he begins his GTWCE Sprint Cup campaign with Barwell Motorsport at Brands Hatch on May 3-4.