Jota Sport came back from an early setback to clinch their second podium of the season in the European Le Mans Series this weekend.

The team suffered a puncture early on but recovered well to move up to third in the Championship with just one round of the season to go.

Drivers Simon Dolan and Oliver Turvey once again showed their talents as they brought the Nissan home in third place.

Like the morning’s qualifying session, the three-hour race began in wet conditions with Turvey keen to make inroads from fifth on the grid. And the Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes Formula 1 Test Driver wasted little time in doing just that by picking up two positions in the opening 30 minutes.

But just as he was lining up a move for second place, debris deposited in the final corner caused a left-rear puncture. Having only just passed the pit entry, the Briton was forced to complete a full lap at near-walking pace so as not to damage the #38 Zytek-Nissan’s bodywork.

While the puncture dropped the team down to fifth, the unscheduled stop did at least offer an opportunity to switch from full wet weather tyres to intermediates. On a drying track it wasn’t long before Turvey was lapping considerably faster than those ahead and, by the end of his stint, had incredibly moved back up to second overall.

Intermittent drizzle prompted the team to remain on intermediates when Dolan climbed aboard just after half-distance. Differing strategies meant the British squad’s silver graded driver was now pitted against the other teams’ fully professional pilots in unpredictable conditions. Nevertheless, Dolan once again demonstrated his capability behind the wheel of an LMP2 prototype by producing two fault-free stints, during which he was able to match his rivals’ times and overcome the frequent rain showers.

That ensured Jota Sport was able to complete its comeback by finishing third, just a lap behind the winners. It’s a result that also sees them head to the final round at Paul Ricard in France on September 27/28 with an outside chance of clinching the ELMS Teams’ and Drivers’ crowns.

Speaking about the racing Simon Dolan, said: “That’s an excellent result – I doubt we could have done any better considering everything that we’ve had to overcome today. I was very happy with my performance in what were tricky conditions throughout the race. Oliver made a great start and was right on the leaders’ pace before his puncture, without which who knows where we might have ended up. To have finished only a lap back is testament to a fine team performance.”

The team’s ELMS entry wasn’t its only podium finisher this weekend, however. Its classic arm, Jota Historic, prepares and runs the Lotus 16 that was driven to third place by its owner Roger Wills in the Richmond Trophy at Goodwood Revival on Saturday.

Team Principal Sam Hignett was also delighted with the podium, he said: “It’s great to be back on the ELMS podium after our victory at Silverstone at the start of the year, especially given the circumstances. Both drivers were exemplary – Oliver at the start and then on the intermediates, and Simon in those tricky conditions against the gold and platinum drivers when he drove very well indeed – and I can’t praise the team enough for their efforts all weekend. Mathematically we can still win the championship at the season finale in two weeks so we’ll be doing everything possible on our side to make that happen.”