“It was awful. I didn’t appreciate it at all,” says Ollie Gray, reflecting on his experience on the second step of the podium after this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours.
“There are pictures of all of us, where Franck (Perera) is smiling because he’s a bit older than me, and Esteban (Masson), he was like ‘we just finished on the podium, let’s be happy!’ But Esteban and I just looked like we wanted to get down from there. I feel bad about it now.”
It’s been a rollercoaster of a season for young Ollie Gray. VDS Panis Racing’s British Silver, who is locked in the ELMS LMP2 title race this year with teammates Masson and Charles Milesi, has come on in leaps and bounds in his second season racing in an ORECA 07. It’s been such a step forward that securing runner-up silverware in the most important race of them all felt like a gut punch.
It was truly heartbreaking, though, finishing second at Le Mans back in June after a last-gasp suspension collapse late in the race.
It was a freak failure of “one screw on the front wishbone” which resulted in Masson limping to the finish line. And in a cruel twist of fate, it meant the #43 car from Gray’s old team, Inter Europol Competition, snuck through to take the win, moments after the Polish team believed it had thrown the race away with a penalty that cost it the lead in the closing stages.
We’d accepted second place just before the #43 guys were under investigation
“We’d accepted second place just before the #43 guys were under investigation,” Gray remembers. “It looked like even though Esteban was really fast and catching, it would take a miracle to win it. It was not ecstasy, but we knew we were in with a chance all of a sudden, so to have it taken away after Inter Europol served their penalty for pit lane speeding.”
Setting the disappointment of it all aside, it was another valuable learning experience for the 20-year-old, which will serve him well for the rest of his career and the rest of the current ELMS season.
“It was such a tough week, which made it even harder to take,” he adds. “We had a few issues, including one with the engine, and we didn’t get a chance to change it until after FP4. It was just nerve-wracking, but we did an exceptional job in the end. And it’s still remarkable that Esteban made the finish, he said it was the scariest drive of his career.”
Thankfully, all is not lost for Gray, far from it. In the ELMS, VDS Panis Racing’s form has been consistently strong. With second in the season opener in Barcelona, a sixth-place finish at Le Castellet and a breakthrough win at Imola last time out, Gray, Masson and Milesi sit atop the LMP2 standings ahead of Round 4 at Spa this Sunday.
“It feels like a little bit of redemption,” Gray says of his victory in Italy, in which he and the team finished ahead of Inter Europol. “It was roles reversed and they have a strong car and a strong package, so it was tough.”
Their championship lead is slender, just a single point over IDEC Sport’s Genesis-backed trio, who have nabbed their fair share of headlines after winning the first two races of the year. But Gray and his teammates ooze confidence ahead of the back half of the campaign.
“We just need to keep focused on ourselves for Spa,” Gray says. “The Panis car was strong last year there and we’ve been strong all year, we need to build on what we have.”
VDS Panis’ #48 crew is one of the more talented and balanced trios in the premier LMP2 field this year. Milesi brings Hypercar experience with Alpine to the party. Masson – currently on a journey as part of the Toyota Gazoo Racing family – is widely considered a star of the future. And Gray is a rapid Silver who has maintained an upward trajectory throughout his transition to sportscar racing from single-seaters.
“The decision to switch to endurance racing wasn’t that hard for me,” he explains. “I didn’t enjoy my last year in single-seaters, and budget-wise, it made sense to go this way. It’s something I’d wanted to do for a while and as a young driver, it’s normal, you can see a path to a good career over here.”
Last year with Inter Europol in the ELMS, racing in the team’s #34 car with Luca Ghiotto and Clement Novalak, Gray showed flashes of what was to come, but it wasn’t until the 2025 season started that he began to see a return for his efforts.
“Last year I was just surprised how high the leve was at Itner Europol, coming from F3 and single-seaters. I never felt uncomfortable or anything, but now in 2025, I feel like I can focus on speed rather than learning the car.
“And the new team environment I’m in suits me. I won’t give too much away, but what I’ll say is that the team spirit at VDS Panis is great, it feels professional but also like a family, and I can’t deny it helps being with my teammates.
“We’ve been so consistent with pace, and the times we haven’t won, we’ve felt unlucky. But you can’t feel upset about it, because we’re maximising what we have.”
As a unit, the Gray-Masson-Milesi combination has all the ingredients in place to pull away in the standings by the time we get to Portimao in October. The bond they have is something Gray feels will pay dividends when the pressure is at its highest. And that, in turn, has the potential to enable him to take the next step forward on what he, like so many other talented young drivers in the current era, hopes is a journey to Hypercar.
We only met in March but we’ve become best mates now
“It’s been good to share the car with Esteban all year. We only met in March but we’ve become best mates now, we’re a similar age and similar people and hopefully on a similar trajectory. We’re so close away from the track and that has enhanced our working relationship.
“Then we have Milesi, who brings Hypercar knowledge, and he’s a Le Mans winner in LMP2 also. He’s one of the youngest Hypercar drivers, yet he feels like someone that’s been around for a long time. He’s at the level I want to be at in the future. It kind of feels like we need to keep him happy so he speaks highly of us to other teams!” Gray jokes.
“We’re focused on the task; we want to bring home the championship. That’s all I’m looking at. Then hopefully, my good performances mean that when I speak to my manager at the end of the season, I get good news.”
