Both races in Hungary were close-fought, wheel-to-wheel battles. I can’t say I found myself in the positions I believe we deserve, but a driver’s a driver and whatever position he’s in he has to fight. After a less than sparkling qualifying session in which both the team’s leading cars finished outside the Top Ten, we had to work hard to improve our set-up.
That went well, but unfortunately virtually the whole weekend hinges on qualifying. Starting from 14th place I found myself right in the middle of the chaos. After a few good overtaking manoeuvres, a fight to the last prod of the brakes with the championship leader and a penalty handed to a driver in front of me, I managed to score a single point, closing out the race in 10th place. I got away well from the line in Race 2 but had to swerve at the first corner to avoid another driver. As I was in first gear I found myself fighting incredible oversteer for a few metres before inevitably spinning. I put it down to a personal error and within second I was back in the race, albeit 77 seconds behind the race leader. By the time the safety car was sent out two laps from the end I'd reduced the gap to 70 seconds. My race speed was significant and the car was running much better. Thanks to the safety car I was able to regain contact with the pack and in the last two laps I passed four rivals, eventually finishing 19th. Obviously it was a disappointing weekend for us as on a number of occasions we showed we should have been challenging for the leading positions. Looking on the bright side however, three positives came out of it all: firstly, we got the car sorted and in the race we were very quick, a second a lap faster than the winner. Secondly, in the previous races I lacked a bit of aggression and here it was back in spades. Thirdly, now we get to go on holiday. See you at SPA at the end of August!