Benjamin Lessennes excited ahead of WTCR opportunity

Current TCR Benelux champion Benjamin Lessennes will make his World Touring Car Cup debut next weekend in Marrakech, driving the #63 Boutsen Ginion Honda Civic Type R in place of the injured Tiago Monteiro, and the youngest driver on the grid is looking forward to the challenge.

Lessennes, who also raced at Spa-Francorchamps in the TCR International Series last year, at one point challenging WRT’s Rob Huff for overall victory, graduates from the Belgian national championship to the world championship after two years, and after only passing his driving test in the middle of 2017.

“I don’t have a lot to expect. I just have to do a good job, I’m the youngest here at 18; so I’m here to learn a lot from Tiago and from Tom (Coronel),” said Lessennes to TouringCarTimes.

After two years racing the FK2 Civic in Belgium, Lessennes will now upgrade to the latest FK8 Civic built by JAS Motorsport, running with the same team which took him to six wins in the Benelux series.

“The new (Civic) feels is a bit longer, so I’ve found the car is much more stable than last year, so I think on some tracks it’s going to be a lot faster,” he said.

Lessennes will be the youngest driver on the grid, three years younger than Münnich Motorsport’s Yann Ehrlacher, but the youngest World Touring Car race winner record won’t be available, as that still belongs to Pepe Oriola, who won his first race at Marrakech five years ago at age 18 years and nine months while driving for Campos Racing in a SEAT León 1.6T.