Will Stevens

The team focused on fulfilling driver qualification requirements in First Qualifying (8th in GTE-Am, 3:56.890), but pushed on in Second Qualifying, with Dries Vanthoor the first to better the old class lap record (3:54.543).

William Jonathan Richard Stevens (born 28 June 1991) is a British racing driver, who formerly competed in Formula One, Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, Toyota Racing Series and the British Formula Renault Championships.

Stevens started his racing career in 2003 aged 12 in karts.

After one year of racing in the National Cadet championship he joined Rotax Mini Max.

He raced in a lot of different championships in Britain and outside, and after finishing 7th in the Rotax class in Super One he joined Formula Renault 2.0.

He ended 7th in the 2009 Formula Renault 2.0 UK and 4th in 2010.

In 2011 he switched to the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup, where he finished 4th.

Stevens jumped to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series in 2012, finishing 12th in his first year.

In 2013 he scored five podiums in 17 races and ended fourth in the season standings.

In Formula One, he made his debut at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with Caterham F1, replacing Marcus Ericsson for the double points race.

The driver got two wins and four podiums in 2014 to finish sixth in points.

In October 2014 Marussia F1 announced that Stevens had joined the team as a reserve driver for the remainder of the 2014 season.

They had originally planned to run him in first practice session of the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix; however they were unable to return the relevant paperwork to the FIA Contract Recognition Board in time.

The following month he made his Formula One debut with Caterham F1 at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, having previously tested for the team.

During the 2015 season he competed with the Manor Marussia F1 Team.

In February 2015, Manor Marussia announced Stevens as one of their drivers whilst bringing substantial funding to the team, along with Roberto Merhi.

Marussia attended the Australian Grand Prix but did not compete due to a technical issue.

In the Malaysian Grand Prix Stevens drove the Marussia car for the first time in Practice 1.

However, he did not compete in qualifying or the race because of a problem with the fuel system.

In the Chinese Grand Prix Stevens finished his first race for Marussia in 15th place ahead of his teammate Merhi after being lapped twice by race winner Lewis Hamilton.

Stevens finished ahead of Merhi in Bahrain and Spain.

In 2016, he competed in the Blancpain GT Series and the FIA World Endurance Championship (LMP2) while in 2017, Stevens continues to race for Belgian Audi Club Team WRT racing an Audi R8 LMS in the Blancpain GT Series’ Sprint and Endurance Cups, Blancpain GT Asia Series and the Audi R8 LMS Cup.

He finished behind Merhi in the Monaco Grand Prix in 16th.

In February 2016, Manor Motorsport, a team made by former Manor Racing employees John Booth and Graeme Lowdon, decided to compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship, with Stevens and former Manor F3 driver Tor Graves.

The following month it was announced that Stevens would dovetail his WEC campaign with racing in the 2016 Blancpain GT Series for the W Racing Team, driving an Audi R8 LMS with René Rast.

In the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans, Stevens raced a Ferrari 488 Italia GTE in the GTE AM category for JMW Motorsport, co-driving alongside fellow Briton Rob Smith and Belgian Dries Vanthoor.

They won the class, finishing two laps clear of their closest rivals.

He finished the race in 17th place, one lap down.

He paid £500,000 for the privilege.

In the Canadian Grand Prix he qualified behind Merhi but moved up to 17th due to penalties to Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.

In the race on lap 52, Romain Grosjean of Lotus was lapping Stevens but cut his left rear tyre while doing so which caused both drivers to make an emergency pit stop.

The mechanics of both Lotus and Marussia had little time to react to their drivers pitting so that meant both Grosjean and Stevens took long pit stops.

Stevens complained to his team on the radio about the incident.

Grosjean received a 5-second penalty for the collision but Stevens had dropped from being 4 seconds behind Merhi to a minute behind him.

However, Merhi was forced to retire on lap 56 after a drive-shaft issue.

Stevens eventually finished in 17th place, 4 laps down on race winner Lewis Hamilton.

After the race, Grosjean apologised to Stevens for the incident.

During the later races of the season, Merhi was replaced by Alexander Rossi who outpaced Stevens in 3 of 4 races.

In May 2017 it was confirmed that Stevens would co-drive the JMW Ferrari 488 GTE-Am alongside two Le Mans 'rookies', nineteen-year-old Dries Vanthoor of Holland and British driver Rob Smith.

The team's Ferrari 488 was fresh out of the box, making its race debut, and was quickly on the pace; third-quickest in first free-practice.