We’ve had to suffer. I use the plural because I could clearly feel the frustration of the people who have always followed and supported me. I made mistakes early on, problems cropped up later, while in between a little bad luck hardly made things any easier.
At Spa the weekend started, as has been the case on other occasions, really well, with the third fastest time in the dry. We were all instead terribly disappointed after qualifying. A somewhat misjudged strategy saw us using dry tyres on a still damp track and I was unable to do any better than 16th place. An uphill weekend, in short. And yet, the strategy that worked against us in qualifying came up trumps in Race 1 when the track conditions were still uncertain. From sixteenth to sixth, grabbing my first points and the second row of the grid for Race 2. I got away well to claim third in Race 2, maintaining the position through to the finish while also recording the fastest lap, which is worth extra points. So, at last we’ve actually obtained something, something we’ve deserved for a while, at least in terms of performance. I’m not that bothered about the points any more, but I have to say I was really interested in that podium. When walking the track before the start of the weekend and passing in front of the podium over the pit lane I found myself thinking “it’s great here at Spa, I want to get up there”.
Right, and now I’ll let you in on a secret: I really like those at Monza, Sochi and Abu Dhabi too.