On Saturday morning we were out practicing at 9am. The weather was great and the 30 minutes flew by. It may sound like a decent period of time to effectively just learn where the corners go, but with one stop in the middle of the session you only get about 15 laps. Bear in mind that whilst you have to push and get as close to the limit as you dare, one step over the limit and you will find yourself sat in the gravel trap and your session is over. If I did that, like some people, early in the session, then it suddenly makes the weekend a whole lot harder as there is just the one practice session left – so I had to try and find the limit in every corner in 15 laps, which is a hard but achievable task. Completing the whole session, I ended in ninth place; I was satisfied, as everybody ahead of me had been to the circuit before so had started a step ahead effectively.
In qualifying we had two sessions, one to separate the top and bottom 20, and then the second to determine the grid. I ended up eighth, which was a solid result. So that was it, Saturday went very quickly due to being out on-track three times. We had not had any issues that affected our performance, and so thankfully we were in a decent position for starting Sunday's race.
On Sunday it was quite a similar story really. I had a reasonable start and overtook my team mate Christian Vietoris who had started one spot ahead of me in seventh. I was then following the car in front and he made a small mistake and went slightly wide, which allowed me to go through on the inside and I was up to sixth in a matter of a couple of laps. It then became evident that Jean-Karl Vernay in fourth had a slightly damaged front wing and was struggling for pace. Jules Bianchi was just ahead of me and pressuring Vernay who was holding us up. After a few laps of trying, Bianchi found a way past, and then I closed the gap on Vernay instantaneously. It was difficult to get past him straightaway as you lose so much downforce when you get close to a car ahead, even if they do have a damaged front wing! After a small battle I was able to overtake him in the first corner with a decisive move around the outside. I braked late to get alongside knowing I was going for the outside so had a few more metres extra to brake, then I was able to hold it around the outside and get good enough traction to get past and into fifth.
From that point on it was a fairly lonely race; I had a large gap ahead of me due to being stuck behind a damaged car for a few laps, and there was a gap behind as well. The only issue I faced was mid-race when marshals' trucks seemed to litter the track! There had been a couple of incidents and the marshals were either going to collect a car or towing one away. It all happened on one lap and I seemed to get to all the vehicles when they were right in the middle of the corner and on the racing line! With waved yellow flags, I had warning and slowed sufficiently to avoid them, but it is quite a shock when approaching at some 200km/h and you have to completely change your speed and line whilst in the corner!
After that I just had to bring the car home; I tried to be fast and consistent so I would have no threat from behind, and be able to take advantage if something happened to the drivers who were up the road a bit. Nothing happened, though, and despite closing the gap to the guy ahead of me by the end of the race it was still far too large for me to put any kind of pressure on him. Still, my team and I were quite happy to have had a normal weekend after the two disappointing weekends previously, and the team was great as usual and gave me a good car throughout the whole weekend.
After that I had a two-day official test at Magny-Cours. With an official test everyone in the F3 Euroseries takes part, so it is effectively an extended qualifying session – and with such little testing time, we have to maximise the testing opportunities as much as possible.
I had a normal day on the Tuesday – a flight to Paris, a car drive to the track, a track walk and a look at data. Then on the Wednesday we were out on-track from 9am until 5pm, with an hour's lunch break at 1pm. There is not a massive amount to say about the testing really. We did many sessions of between six and eight laps, trying out different set-ups and parts on the car. We worked well on the first day and got some useful results. On the first day we set our fastest time – like almost everyone else – in the afternoon, and it was good enough to put us fourth. I realised it was a good position to be in, but after looking at the data and working out where I could have been faster, I was eager to capitalise the next day to improve our position.
The next morning we were able to do exactly that! On my first set of tyres, I did a reasonable job again in the top five and lapping in 1m34.26s, which was two tenths off the quickest. I struggled a little in two corners but was strong in all of the others. This was great as I knew I just had to focus on those two corners and I would be able to be very competitive. On my second run I did a 1m33.92s and was fastest. I was also the only person to get into the 1m33s, which was nice.
We did a few more sessions after that, just confirming a few set-up changes, and then stopped for a while to change the car completely. We changed it over lunch to a set-up for the next race at the Norisring, which is a street track with a very long straight. We therefore run very little downforce and the car handles very differently. We used the afternoon to just do some sessions for familiarisation and to get used to the feel of the car. That was all we could do, as the near-perfectly smooth track surface is nothing like the bumpy streets of the Norisring. At the end my engineer and I were satisfied with the two days. We had made good progress with myself and the car and ended up fastest, showing we were improving at a good rate.
The Norisring was another good challenge as I hadn't been there before and we only had one hour of testing before qualifying, and it was a very mixed weekend. The first three-quarters of it were fantastic, but the last part was where I let myself and my team down. The Norisring is close by to Nuremberg, which has a massive history itself for reasons other than racing. It is where Adolf Hitler had a lot of his rallies to boost troop morale and where he gave speeches to the people of Germany. On Thursday, whilst walking around the old stadium – which was the DTM paddock! – it was quite eerie as I could easily imagine Hitler standing on this podium structure that was high up in front of a large square field with stands around the edge. The field would probably fit four full-size athletics tracks, so that gives you an idea of how large it was. To imagine it filled with people with Hitler's voice blaring out of the PA system was not as hard as I would have thought. It was quite creepy really!
