Alex Ley is getting ready for his return to the grid after missing much of the Spa-Francorchamps weekend after a high-speed crash at the famous Raidillon corner.

The 21-year-old British driver’s car was terminally damaged after it speared right at the top of the hill and into the barriers on his first flying lap in qualifying, and took no further part in the weekend.

Ley was forced to sit on the sidelines and watch as his 17-point championship lead was turned around, with Mike Halder now taking over at the top of the standings. After a strong opener at Mugello in May, the BRC Racing Team driver is still well-placed in the title battle, just fourth in the order.

“I’ve tried to get Spa off my mind and focus on different things, and I’m looking forward to getting back to it at Paul Ricard,” said Ley.

“(The crash) was my fault at the end of the day. We had new front tyres, and rear tyres which had high kilometres on them, and so the tyres were cold on the rear left. It was just a small error but with a big consequence. It’s the biggest crash I’ve had by miles. I’ve been lucky in that I’ve never had a big crash in my career before that.”

It will be the first time that Ley has raced at Paul Ricard, after starting his career in TCR UK and then TCR Italy and so mainly has experience of only the British and Italian circuits, but is looking forward to the fast, flowing southern French circuit.

“I think we’ll be strong there, it’s quite flat, and in terms of characteristics it’s a lot more like Mugello. We’re using the car we used in the TCR Europe Cup, which is BRC Racing Team’s spare car. The car from Spa we’re going to try and repair and use it later in the year.”

After missing all of the Spa weekend, Ley slipped from the lead to fourth in the standings, 27 points back from new leader Halder, with Nicolas Taylor and Junesung Park also moving ahead of him.

“In terms of the championship, I thought it was going to be a lot worse,” added Ley. “We’ve worked out we just need to regain seven points each weekend, but I still don’t want to think too much about the championship as it’s only been two rounds.

“What hurt the most at Spa was not being able to drive at all, even if we’d have been able to start at the back, but the good thing now for Paul Ricard is we’ve got a lot of new tyres, and no compensation weight.”