I got in the car on the pre-grid, drove through the pit-lane onto the track and round one lap and pulled up to my grid position. Whilst keeping calm, waiting for the ten-minute countdown for the green flag lap, I ran through the start in my head, just checking I had everything covered. Then after the lights went off for the green flag lap I pulled off and laid some rubber down on my grid spot. This just helps a little to clean the track and put a bit of rubber down to increase the grip, so that when you go for your start you can get slightly better traction. Having warmed everything up correctly, my start was good I jumped from eleventh to seventh on the drag down to the first corner.

Unfortunately, this was the best part of the race, as on lap two I felt the car and tyres were ready to go flat-out through turn seven, which is a fifth gear right-hander. In testing it had been flat-out every lap, so I didn't feel I was asking too much. I guess I was, though, and the car snapped in the middle of the corner. I had to turn into the slide to stop myself from spinning and consequently drove into the gravel trap. I lost a lot of ground but rejoined, then just a few corners later a car behind lunged down the inside; I saw this coming and went as wide as I could, but he slid into me and broke my steering arm. I was out on the spot. I got out and headed back to the pits to watch the remainder of the race.

After we got the cars back from Parc Fermé we looked at the data. This time there was only the start to look at, and that was reasonable. I have consistently improved my starts, and that was another step in the right direction. I spent some time with my father, brother and a couple of sponsors that had come for the weekend before they headed back to their hotel. Then after supper I just headed back to the hotel and got some sleep.

Sunday, I felt, was going to be a tough race starting from 24th. It turned out quite reasonable, though. Having got an even better start than I did on the Saturday, by racing well and taking advantage of every opportunity that presented itself to me I was in ninth by the end of the second lap. I closed down the gap to the driver ahead of me and started to pressure him; I maintained a small gap to him for a number of laps, but could not find a way past. When following another car in F3 you lose a lot of downforce due to the disturbed air that they create, so getting past once everyone has settled into a rhythm is quite difficult.

After about ten laps of sitting behind him he made a mistake in the second-to-last corner. I was close behind him and picked up his slipstream down the main straight. Knowing from the previous laps that I was later braking than him anyway for the first corner, I decided to make a move there. I went down the inside but he moved across on me; I went as far towards the corner as I could but he turned into me, thinking I would back out of the move. I had braked as late as possible, though, so once I had committed to the move I could not suddenly slow down any quicker to stop the move, plus I was far enough down the inside for it to be my corner anyway. My front wheel hit the middle of his tub and broke my rim; therefore I had a flat tyre and completed the rest of the lap to pit and get a new one.

It was a massive disappointment as I had to make progress, as there are only points awarded for the top six in race two. It was a bold move, but one that was completely legitimate. After that I had decent pace unsurprisingly, but by that time I had an odd tyre which was worn more than the others and a damaged front wing. I ended up a lowly 22nd, which was almost as frustrating as the first race. To make up some 15 places was fantastic, but in my eyes it was no better coming ninth than it was 22nd – no points is the end result whatever position you finish if it is outside the top six.

Again, though, I took away the positives and learnt from what I could from the weekend, and next we moved onto the F3 Masters at Zandvoort, another circuit I hadn't been to before. Learning tracks quickly has never been too much of a challenge for me, though, and at last we had a respectable weekend where things simply went according to plan.

Going into the weekend I was a little unsure as to how it would unfold. Being the 'Masters', as it is a stand-alone race, many different drivers and teams from many different championships entered. They ranged from the Euroseries, British F3, Italian F3 and Spanish F3. With the race open to so many people, unsurprisingly there was a massive field of drivers, 38 in total. The meeting was staged over two days, with testing and qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday.

Arriving at midday on the Friday after a typically early start for my flight, I got straight into looking around the circuit so I would be familiar with everything as quickly as possible. Being a one-off race we had a few more administrative things to do. These included signing event forms and having an official weighing for the scrutineers so they have a base weight for each driver before the weekend begins.

Once all this was sorted we waited for the track to be free – as other formulas were testing on Friday until 5pm – then we did our usual track walk. It was clear straight away that Zandvoort was going to be a great challenge; the corners were all quite unique. Many of them had different cambers and the circuit had lots of undulation. This always adds to the challenge as each of the different cambers, rises and falls requires different driving techniques. Michi and I talked in length about the different corners as we walked and discussed the different approaches and techniques that would be required. After the walk we were pretty much finished for the evening, so it was back to the hospitality tent for some supper and back to the hotel for some sleep!