After that we went to Budapest, and I had set fastest lap in Hungary last year, with a smaller team, so I was hoping for a similar result this year. In qualifying, unfortunately, I had to move to the inside to avoid d'Ambrosio when he spun in front of me, but in doing so I clipped the kerb and spun too.

I hadn't quite maxed out the first set of tyres, which was still good enough for second at the time, so I was disappointed I didn't get a chance to prove I could have gone quicker on the second set of fresh tyres and ended up fifth.

Bearing in mind the clutch problem we had at the start and what happened in the first couple of laps, a fourth place finish was a good result. I couldn't believe that Grosjean rejoined like he did right in front of me – I almost had to come to a halt to avoid a major crash. We showed we had good pace, though, and as usual around it there it was hard work in the high temperatures.

The sprint race, by contrast, was so frustrating, being ready to go and then having an electronic problem leave me stranded on the dummy grid. I just sat there in neutral not able to go anywhere. We tried replacing everything we could – even the steering wheel – but it made no difference.

After that the month of August must be the unluckiest time I have ever had. Valencia and Spa were a huge kick in the guts, as they were both weekends where we were very quick but got zero points out of the weekend for me and the team.

The Valencia street circuit was certainly very interesting, with a good mix of corners and some overtaking opportunities even though the circuit was quite dusty off-line. Neither the circuit nor the atmosphere were as good as in Monaco or Macau, I have to say, where it really feels like a true street race around a city and you can feel that extra-special glamour angle to the event, but it was still a good job done.

I flew out there a day early and spent most of the Wednesday morning going around the circuit on a bicycle, which was great training in the heat and also a good way to learn the circuit. Bruno and a load of other drivers had been there before in either F3 or GT cars, but I felt that the money they wanted for that was way too much and anyway, I've always been reasonably good at learning new circuits.

In free practice I got into a good rhythm, and by the end of it we were P3, which I was happy with. In qualifying it all turned on its head, and after a spin early on I then had Davide Valsecchi in front of me on my best lap, which cost me half a second and sent me down to P12 on the grid. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed!

Race one was a bit of a nightmare, when I got up to tenth, then had a drive-through penalty for an unsafe release from the pit-stop. It was a tight squeeze with Andy Soucek and I don't want to criticise Chris, our chief mechanic who does the lollipop, because it really is the worst job in the pit-lane. What I couldn't understand is why we should get a drive-through penalty for an incident that really is no fault of the drivers. Later in the F1 race, Ferrari got fined for exactly the same offence but Felipe Massa got no drive-through…

In the end it didn't really matter because after dropping to 19th and then climbing back up to ninth, we ran out of fuel on the last lap! I wasn't the only one, but it was still no consolation for me or the team.