Sean Walkinshaw expressed his satisfaction as he finished third in his class in the annual Gulf 12 Hours race at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.

Despite suffering from flu, the 21-year-old from Chipping Norton and his Dragon Racing teammates Jordan Grogor and Mohammed Jawa drove the Ferrari 458 Italia to take a sensational Pro-Am class podium on his maiden weekend in sportscar racing.

The class was won by the Black Falcon team of Abdul-aziz Al Faisal, Hubert Haupt and Richard Muscat, with Piergiuseppe Perazzini, Filipe Barreiros and Marco Cioci from the AF Corse, second.

“It’s been amazing,” said Walkinshaw. “Everyone at Dragon Racing did a great job and Mohammed and Jordan did really well.

“It’s so nice to get on the podium in my first-ever endu-rance race.

“Hopefully the performance we delivered this weekend will help to open up a few more options for us for next year.”

Walkinshaw’s switch from single-seater racing to GT action saw him follow the same path trodden by his late father, Tom, back in the 1970s.

The British driver quickly got to grips with the Ferrari and the circuit.

And the team ultimately qualified 12th fastest overall and seventh in class for the first of the two six-hour contests – the Gulf 12 Hours is split into two races – one in the day, the other at night.

Running strongly to eighth position overall in his first stint, Walkinshaw’s teammates also delivered strong showings.

When he retuned to the driving seat for the final stint of the opening six hours, he climbed from ninth overall into seventh at the chequered flag.

The second six-hour race, which took place under the Yas Marina floodlights following a three hour interval, went similarly well for the Dragon Racing trio who completed the combined 12 hours in the Pro-Am top four before profiting from a penalty for a rival team.

Marking Sean’s first race in the dark, he completed two very strong stints and with just over half an hour remaining the team held third in class with Grogor driving.

After a restart following Jorge Lorenzo’s crash, Grogor lost a couple of places before finishing fourth.

However, they were promoted up to third after the Mercedes SLS AMG was served with a time penalty.

Walkinshaw said: “With half an hour to go we were quite comfortably going to get the podium, then we had the first Safety Car of the entire race.

“That looked to have ruined it, but then Jordan (Grogor) managed to get back up to fourth and then the time penalty for the Mercedes guys got us back on the podium.

“The main challenge for me was getting used to the high fuel loads in the car.

“It’s something new to me coming from single-seaters in F3, but it all went okay.

“Overall, it’s been a fantastic weekend and I really enjoyed it.”

Walkinshaw is now bidding to sec-ure a place on either the Blancpain Endurance Series grid or in the sister Blancpain Sprint Series.