Finishing third at Le Mans in the Aston Martin DB9R this year was a great achievement by the team.

Yes, we had the fastest cars on the track and we had the car to win, but, when you look at the fact that this is a new programme, and it is very much a development year, we did okay. There is a real incentive to be the first private team to win Le Mans in an Aston Martin for the first time.

As for the race, well, I have to say it was the toughest race I have ever done. Why? The heat.

It was so hot in the cockpit that the temperatures in the cabin were around 70c. These were records temps for Le Mans and, with the DB9R running hot inside the car, it was the worse conditions we could have asked for. Having said that, however, the car was really good to drive. The team worked really hard at making sure we had a fast car, and they achieved that goal.

In the race, we could run a couple of seconds a lap quicker than the 'Vettes, which was really handy, as my poor team-mate Darren [Turner] got seven minutes of penalties in the first few hours of running. That set us back, but it didn't stop us. We drove the car really hard to catch up, and we were gaining on the leaders all the time. The other team car was having a great run, and was leading for most of the race.

On and on we went, pounding around this amazing track. It is a great feeling seeing the sun come up and having the car is still running strong. As we got closer to the finish, we found ourselves very close to the front. The #58 Aston came into the pits to replace the front splitter situated under the nose of the car. This cost them the lead and put my mate 'Jan Mags' out front. I was chasing him down as we were on the same lap with two hours to go - in fact, all the 'Vettes and Astons were on the same lead lap at that time, which was amazing.

During the few hours before that, however, we had a warning light come on and tell us we had a water pressure problem. In the pit-stops, we were filling up the radiator with water to help the problem, but it wasn't long before we had to stop and replace the radiator itself. Incredibly, as this happened, the #58 Aston stopped on the track with a fuel pick-up problem. That all the two 'Vettes to coast to the finish line, but we got the rad changed and still managed to finish third.

It was a really good feeling standing on the podium after such a tough race, and I was thinking how lucky I have been to stand on the Le Mans podium three times - once with Jaguar, once with Bentley and now Aston Martin. Ding dong!

DB