No points - but mega first lap!

04-10-16

 

That was a tough weekend in the GP3 Series supporting the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.

 

The only high spot was a mega first lap in race two from the back of the grid, but to come away from the longest trip of the year with no points was definitely not what we wanted.  Basically, we really struggled to get the tyre working on the relaid surface.

 

Race one ended pretty early for me. I had quite a good start from 16th and thought I could gain places in Turn 1. I was behind my team mate Kevin Joerg, and everyone was checking up in front, so I recognised what would happen, and equally I could see cars on the outside so I couldn’t go there. Unfortunately Artur Janosz didn’t expect us to have slowed down, and he hit me up the back and took my rear wing off. Stuff like that has happened so many times this year, and with all those DNFs and problems it’s impossible to get upset or angry about it any more. It’s like ‘OK, move on’.

 

So that meant I was at the back of the grid for race two.

 

It sounds cheesy, but just before going out I saw on onboard of Robert Wickens from race two at the Hungaroring a few years ago in GP3.

'It was the most monstrous first lap I've ever seen – let's just call it a bit of inspiration!'

I got right up to 14th from 20th, passing cars all over the place, and from there I progressed to 12th. Then I found myself behind Kevin again, but our pace was very even and I never found the opportunity to overtake him. He had cars in front of him, so I was relying on him to make an opening and I'd follow him through, but he didn't manage to overtake. So from then on I was driving round behind him waiting for an opportunity that never came.

 

That's it now in GP3 for several weeks before the final round in Abu Dhabi, but before that I'm doing the final round of a series I've never raced in before... I'm really looking forward to it and we will make an announcement later this week.

 

 

 

 

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