ANDY Meyrick experienced a frustrating start to life in the LeMans Series (LMS) at Barcelona.

The former Chester King’s School pupil from Delamere is a rookie in the series having transferred from British Formula Three. But his maiden race with the Kolles LMP team at the Circuit de Catalunya was over before he got into the car.

LMS teams have three drivers per car who share the drive during the race. Meyrick’s team has been assembled by former team director of the Jordan and Force India Formula One teams, Dr Colin Kolles, which runs the legendary Audi R10, the first diesel-engine car to win LeMans.

But before Meyrick took the controls in the opening round of 2009, his team-mate Michael Krumm had been shunted from behind and confusion in the pits coupled with the time taken to repair the damage left Meyrick driving in a race he couldn’t win.

But the 22-year-old is in perhaps the best car on the grid.

He pushed hard to put in a number of consistently quick laps to match the leading runners and after 60 laps handed over to the third driver, Charles Zwolsman.

“It was a very difficult weekend in many ways,” said Meyrick.

“We didn’t have the pace we expected in qualifying and the accident early on in the race effectively ended our weekend.”