Tom Sharp continued his impressive start to his maiden Porsche Carrera Cup GB campaign by bouncing back from a difficult qualifying session to post a top five race finish at Spa-Francorchamps.

Sharp turned heads on his championship debut at Brands Hatch four weeks ago with a pair of top three grid positions and a fifth place race finish, a result he matched in the opener at Spa before an unfortunate mechanical failure forced a race two retirement.

The championship’s annual flyaway meeting saw them join the support bill of the FIA World Endurance Championship, with Sharp returning to the iconic Belgian venue after showing impressive pace there on his maiden visit in British GT last season.

The meeting started positively in the wet Thursday practice runs, with Sharp making improvements throughout the first session to post the fifth best time in his #10 IDL Racing Porsche, before his only flying lap in a red flag plagued second session put him sixth in the thirty car field.

Weather conditions improved dramatically overnight heading into Friday’s qualifying session, though unfortunately for Sharp he wasn’t able to capitalise on this as hoped. A best lap time of 2m 26.336s put him tenth on the grid for race one, with his second best time securing twelfth for race two.

Sharp bounced back in superb style though with a fantastic start to the opening race later that day, the 23 year old gaining two places off the line before picking up two more through Eau Rouge to move into a great sixth place.

Settling in that position in the early stages, Sharp was soon one of the fastest cars on track as he chased down fellow first year contender Dino Zamparelli, whilst also fending off the challenge of double series champion Michael Meadows within a thrilling five car battle for third place.

With Meadows’ charge ending with an incident four laps from the end, Sharp was able to focus solely on pursuing the top five and finished up just four tenths of a second shy at the end – though a post-race penalty for a rival ahead promoted Sharp to a richly-deserved fifth place finish.

In race two, another strong start had seen him gain two places by the entrance of Eau Rouge for the first time – however it was at that moment disaster struck, with a waterpipe coming loose and dropping all its coolant onto the front left tyre.

Fortunately for Sharp there was no repeat of 2014 when he endured a mechanically-induced 140mph crash at the same corner, with him keeping his 911 GT3 Cup Car on the tarmac before pulling off the circuit into retirement.

Tom Sharp: “It proved to be quite a difficult weekend for us overall, with the change of conditions between practice and qualifying leaving us on the backfoot against a number of drivers who had previously tested at the circuit in this car in the dry.

“Our pace in the first race was brilliant, we were able to move up the order, set some competitive lap times and be right on the tail of the final podium position. Race two was naturally a disappointment, as we’d moved into the top ten and I was feeling confident of gaining more places.

“We’ve got a five week break now before the next meeting, so we’ll be taking everything we’ve learnt this weekend and working hard to try and improve the car so we can be challenging for podium finishes at Oulton Park.”

The Porsche Carrera Cup GB now returns to the UK and the BTCC support package for the remainder of the campaign, with the visit to Oulton Park in Cheshire next up on June 6/7 for Rounds Five and Six of the season.