He finished eighth in the series standings, taking nine points-scoring positions in eleven races, including a podium in the penultimate race of the season at Magny-Cours. He finished third, behind Renaud Derlot and Tristan Gommendy, taking nine podium places from fourteen races, including wins at Croix-en-Ternois and Bugatti Circuit. He finished third, behind Christian Klien and Ryan Briscoe, taking nine podium places from twenty races.
French Formula Campus & Formula Three
Born in Toulouse, Pla started his career in 2000 in French Formula Campus before moving on to French Formula Three Championship in 2001 with the Saulnier Racing team In 2002, Pla stayed in the series but switched to the American Society for Microbiology team In 2003, Pla joined the Formula 3 Euro Series with American Society for Microbiology. World Series by Nissan
2004 saw Pla leave the Euroseries, joining the World Series by Nissan.
He contested two rounds with Remote Control Motorsport before joining Carlin Motorsport to replace Michael Keohane.
GP2 Series
In 2005 he raced in the inaugural GP2 Series season for David Price Racing. In the early part of the season he stalled on the grid several times — some blamed the GP2 cars for the high number of stallings, while others noticed that the same drivers seemed to be affected regularly.
In another race he selected reverse instead of first gear and went backwards into his team-mate"s car. However, he took advantage of the reverse grid system to finish eighth in Race One and thus take pole for Race Two twice (at Hockenheim and Silverstone), winning both those races to finish 11th in the championship.
He remained with DPR for 2006, but was dropped mid-season after running out of sponsorship, after a difficult period which saw him score no points and injure his hand in Monaco.
In 2007, he competed in the German Porsche Carrera Cup. However, he was recalled to DPR in the latter stages of the GP2 season to replace the injured Christian Bakkerud. In 2008, he moved to sports car racing, driving a Lola Le Mans Prototype in the Le Mans Series and 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Career summary
Complete GP2 Series results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
24 Hours of Le Mans results
Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results
= United SportsCar Championship results (key)(Races in bold indicate pole position, Results are overall/class).
