As Charles Leclerc was already experiencing a highlight of his young career on Sunday 28 May 2018 in Monaco for his very first F1 Grand Prix at home at the wheel of his Sauber, Thomas Laurent was in preparations for his first 24 Hours of Le Mans in LMP1 with his team, Rebellion. "Charles and I have known each other a long time. We did minikart together at Douvrin. We must have been about six or seven," recalls Thomas Laurent, born in 1998. That was back in 2006. Since then, both drivers have certainly made their marks in motorsport.

These days, Charles Leclerc - GP3 champion in 2016 and F2 title-winner in 2017 - is a head driver in F1 with the Sauber team and is in the fold at Ferrari.    

Thomas Laurent, who opened the 24 Hours in LMP3 in 2016 with a win at Road to Le Mans, won the LMP2 class at the 2017 edition of Le Mans, even reaching the second step on the overall podium behind the Porsche 919 Hybrid. This year, having moved up to the LMP1 class, he will lead Rebellion's charge against Toyota and its hybrid prototype and is a contender for the overall victory.

Each in his own way, Leclerc and Laurent have climbed the motorsport ladder extremely fast. Thomas Laurent: "In 2016, I left my karting team in France, and as such a French environment, to join David Cheng's Chinese team, spending the majority of my season in Asia, in a completely foreign setting. I went directly from karting to my first racing car, an LMP3. I felt comfortable right away. It's an excellent tool when learning to become an endurance driver. For me, this is a childhood dream. I have always wanted to be a driver in endurance. Who did I look to? Sébastien Bourdais. When I started out in competition, I used his helmet colors as inspiration for my own. I have yet to meet him. Last year in the wake of his accident at Indianapolis, he was unable to do Le Mans, but his father gave me a message from him. That was really nice. This year it will be strange because I'm going to meet him for the first time, on the track, and I should be faster as he's in LMGTE Pro."

Even though Laurent will be competing in the top class, LMP1, he is remaining level-headed. "I understand it's vital to wait for the right time, not rush things. I should know...last year, wanting to go too fast, I made a mistake early in the race. Luckily, it turned out inconsequential, but I won't forget it," he explains, describing how he spun round shortly after the start of the race.

Soon he will submit to the technical and administrative checks at the biggest endurance race in the world, a contender for the overall win, as Charles Leclerc gets ready to take on the Canadian Grand Prix.