That was a really satisfying pair of races in the GP2 Series at Spa, and to finish third in the feature race and sixth in the sprint race showed again that the DAMS team is definitely moving in the right direction.
The races were even more satisfying because Friday – when we have free practice and qualifying – was in general not what we wanted. I was 12th in free practice and then eighth in qualifying, and we were struggling for pace on new tyres. It’s a shame, because that meant we ended up quite a way off pole, and I’m not saying we would be in the class of the Prema cars but we definitely could have got a lot closer.
It was the middle sector, with the high-speed corners, that for us was pretty average. We’ve made a lot of changes to the car over the past 12 months and I don’t think it went our way on Friday. We were just struggling with the balance. Still, at least our straight-line speed was good, so I’m looking forward to Monza next weekend!
From eighth on the grid I made a really good start to the feature race and I was even briefly into fourth. I was just minding my own business through La Source when I got a hit from Antonio Giovinazzi, and although it didn’t damage my car it really compromised me, because it gave Raffaele Marciello a run on me through Eau Rouge and now I was having to defend seventh.
Our pace was good on the soft tyres but I pitted as soon as we could to try to get the undercut and that worked. It vaulted me ahead of Giovinazzi and Marciello and now I was into play for fifth. On the hard tyres I caught and passed Gustav Malja – I actually did a double pass on him and Daniel de Jong, who was running long on the hard tyres, so that felt good!
Then I just tried to focus on my own race. It looked like I was going to finish fourth but fortunately for me, and unfortunately for him, Norman Nato broke down, so that put me on the podium. Could I have challenged Jordan King for second if Giovinazzi hadn’t hit me at the first corner and cost me that time? Definitely possible, but even so I was really happy with third.
With the reversed grid that put me sixth in the line-up for Sunday’s race. Again I made a good start to get up to fifth, but I made a mistake at the left-hander before Pouhon and that cost me a couple of places over the next couple of corners. It was very processional for much of the race, and I was running eighth, but then it looked as though some people’s tyres started to go off.
Over the closing laps I got into a battle with Jordan and Artem Markelov and it was really nice to pick off both of them to finish sixth. That was damage-limitation, to finish where we started. I had a few balance issues but it was a pretty solid race and a good weekend.
Overall, Spa was a big step forward for us, and it was very satisfying to back on a feature-race podium after a long absence. We had strong pace, fantastic pit stops, and it’s great to be still heading in the right direction as we look forward to Monza next weekend.
Qualifying: 8th Race 1: 3rd (started on soft tyres, switched onto hard) Race 2: 6th
