Photo: Fotospeedy
After warm and dry weather for both days of practice, we arrived at the circuit this morning to wet conditions which were continuing to worsen.
Right as our qualifying session was scheduled to start, a thunderstorm and lightening hit with a torrential downpour. At first our qualifying session was delayed, then scheduled to start, and then finally with even heavier rain the session was cancelled.
As a result, the grid for Race 1 would then be decided by times yesterday in Free Practice 1 and 2 as per the Championship regulations. Unfortunately, whilst many other drivers used a set of their weekend race tyres yesterday in practice, we did not, and that meant that I was to start P13 out of the grid.
It is very rare for a session to be completely cancelled due to weather, so at the time it was defintely the right call to make and to keep those new tyres for the right time.
Leading in to Race 1 the track was very wet, and then once again it started to rain just as we were headng to the grid. It must have been close to being started behind the safety car.
Off the line I got away well and made up a position off the line. The level of visibility was horrendous. However I managed to make up another position during lap 1 with a move up the inside to get myself into 11th place. From here though behind a group of cars, with spray and oil over my visor, I was really struggling to see and I dropped a couple of positions over the next few laps as I raced amongst the group.
For the remainder of the race I pushed and managed to stay on the back of the group in front whilst pulling away from the driver behind to finished the race in 14th.
In terms of a result, today has not worked out for us, however in terms of experience the day has been invaluable as I have never has the opportunity to experience this extent of wet racing before other than the opening laps of the race at Pau earlier in the Championship, and in one of the rounds of the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand.
Fantastic work as always from all of the team and thanks to Mick, Tom, and all at Fortec. Looking forward to tomorrow where we expect a return to the dry weather.
Photo: Fotospeedy
Photo: Fotospeedy
Photo: Fotospeedy