Harry King enjoyed a strong start to his assault on the 2023 Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland with victory on the opening weekend of the new season at Spa Francorchamps.

Harry - who also returns to the Mobil 1 Porsche Supercup this year as part of a dual programme - was making his first appearance in the German series having previously secured championship titles in both Carrera Cup Great Britain and Carrera Cup Benelux in recent seasons.

Having inked a deal with the Allied-Racing team for the Deutschland programme, Harry headed to the home of the Belgian Grand Prix eager to impress against a stellar field of rivals including fellow Supercup front-runners Larry ten Voorde and Bastian Buus.

Free practice ahead of the weekend saw Harry on the pace from the outset as he set the fourth-quickest time before an impressive drive in tricky wet conditions in qualifying saw him put the #19 car on pole position for the opening race.

That made him the first British driver to score pole in Carrera Cup Deutschland since the late Sean Edwards more than a decade ago.

A solid start when the lights went out in the opening race saw Harry maintain his position at the front, edging away from the squabbling pack behind before the safety car was deployed to allow two stricken cars to be removed from the circuit.

On the restart, Harry came under attack from ten Voorde into turn one but was able to stay ahead as the pair charged down to Eau Rouge before easing away from the multiple Supercup champion to secure a comfortable race win, complete with fastest lap.

Harry’s second-quickest lap in qualifying would leave him third on the grid for race two, which would be held in tricky wet conditions.

Although he briefly dropped to fourth place at the start, Harry wasted little time in getting back ahead of Harri Jones mid-way through the opening lap before then coming under pressure from Morris Schuring in the fight for third spot.

Schuring would eventually manage to find a way through, with Harry retaining fourth after a stunning wheel-to-wheel battle with Theo Oeverhaus before the safety car was deployed late on.

The action would resume in time for a single lap of green flag racing, with Harry pushing hard to try and reclaim his place on the podium before crossing the line to take a hard-fought fourth place.

With the next Carrera Cup Deutschland event taking place at Hockenheim on the weekend of 9-11 June, Harry’s focus turns to his Mobil 1 Porsche Supercup programme with BWT Lechner Racing, which kicks off at Imola from 19-21 May.

"It’s been almost the perfect start to my programme in Carrera Cup Deutschland," the BRDC Superstar admitted. "To score pole position for my debut weekend, and then win race one with the fastest lap is a great achievement and shows that all the hard work that has gone in over the winter with the Allied-Racing team has paid off.

"To win by that margin was a hugely positive start, although race two in vastly different conditions was a totally different race and very tough. It was an exciting race with some good battles but we lacked a little outright pace, which makes P4 quite a satisfying result even if it wasn’t what we were ultimately hoping for.

"I’m very grateful to the new partners who have enabled me to join the Carrera Cup Deutschland field this season, and am looking forward to heading to Hockenheim in just over a month for round two."