The 2016 Nürburgring 24 Hour winner showed he will be a force to be reckoned with in the ultra-competitive 50 car GT3 field this season as he brought the No. 4 Mercedes-AMG GT3 he shared with co-drivers Yelmer Buurman and Luca Stolz home in tenth, the same position they started.

A collision between a Bentley and a Lamborghini on the run to the first corner forced Buurman to take avoiding action, but fortunately he emerged from the incident without damage.

“Yelmer did a great job staying out of trouble at the start of the race, he definitely had front row tickets to the chaos unfolding,” Christodoulou reported. “Lots of cars got collected, but Yelmer managed to get all the way through without a scratch.”

Christodoulou finally climbed aboard with just over an hour to go and despite losing time boxed in behind other cars in the cramped pitlane, caught the SMP Ferrari napping to steal another position after a brief Full Course Yellow period.

With 15 minutes to go, the AMG Driver faced enormous pressure from the Ferrari and defended his position into the tight first chicane. This was called into question by the stewards and the team received a penalty after the checkered flag.

“It’s been great to be back in action in the Blancpain Endurance Cup, it was an extremely tough weekend but a fun one,” said the Lichfield driver.

“I believe this is one of our hardest tracks on the calendar now done and dusted, the next race on the calendar will be at Silverstone, which is my only home race of the year, so I’m really looking forward to it – hopefully racing at home will give us the advantage!”