Michael Lyons delivered a true star performance during the latest round of the FIA Masters Historic Formula One Championship at the Nurburgring in Germany over the weekend, 9th/10th August, with a remarkable victory in Sunday’s rain-hit race – and all after starting from the pitlane!

Having led Saturday’s encounter before fuel pressure problems led to a tumble down the order, the 23-year-old from Bishop’s Stortford was determined to bounce back in the second encounter and did so with a faultless showing at the wheel of his Hesketh 308E.

Light rain prior to Sunday’s action resulted in some competitors heading to the grid with treaded wet-weather rubber while others – including Michael – remained on slicks. However, as the weather worsened before the start of the formation lap it became obvious the remaining drivers would need to leave the grid and head to the pits for a tyre change.

Lining up at the end of the pitlane seventh in a nine-car queue, Michael made immediate progress and stormed through the order in very tricky conditions. Sensationally working his way into second place, chances of victory seemed slim at best with race leader Silvio Kalb – who started the race on wets on the actual grid – holding an advantage of almost 20 seconds at that point.

Setting fastest lap pace, the Briton ate into Kalb’s lead but even at the rate he was reeling the leader in there just wasn’t enough time remaining. On the penultimate tour, though, the Arrows A4 driver had a spin and Michael swept through to claim a momentous victory by three seconds.

“That was an amazing race, it had pretty much everything”, reflected an elated Michael, “We went to the grid on slicks but it tipped down before the start, so we had no option but to get off the grid and into the pits to fit wets. Starting from pitlane was never going to be easy, but we made really good progress and then started passing the cars which started on wets. I didn’t expect to win!”

Beginning race one from third on the grid, class pole position, Michael moved into second and harried the Ensign N180 of race leader Simon Fish as the pair enjoyed a tremendous battle with the Arrows of Steve Hartley close behind.

Throwing everything at the leader, Michael managed to make the breakthrough at the beginning of lap 12 into the first corner. On course for a terrific result, the Hesketh then suffered a fuel pressure problem which resulted in a slip down the order to an eventual finish of 20th place overall.

“Saturday’s race was fantastic, I had a really good scrap up at the front with Simon [Fish] and Steve [Hartley] – it was a lot of fun”, he added, “It was really unfortunate getting the electrical issue two laps from the end, two wins would have been great but it was still a really good weekend.”

Zandvoort in The Netherlands will host the next event on the FIA Masters Historic Formula One calendar over the weekend 30th/31st August. In terms of Michael’s contemporary racing career, he will return to European Le Mans Series action at the wheel of his Ferrari 458 Italia at Paul Ricard in southern France on 13th/14th September.