In the latest exclusive column for the Carlin F3 team, second-year driver Christian Bakkerud looks back at the opening two rounds of the season and previews the upcoming street race at the French circuit of Pau.
I feel the start of the season has gone alright for me. At
Oulton Park I feel we were a little bit short of pace compared to the Mercedes powered cars but other than that, it wasn’t too bad. Obviously the first qualifying session didn’t really go to plan and I was seventh, but the second one was much better to qualify in third. I then finished second in that second race and I feel that, for me, that first meeting was alright.
However the second one at
Donington Park was a bit of a disaster. I was in fourth place and then Oli [Jarvis] tried overtaking [James] Walker which ended in tears and unfortunately they collected me as well. If I’d finished that race in second place then I would be third in the championship right now but instead I’m seventh so I can’t say anything too positive about Donington Park!
Obviously to get caught up in an incident like I did there is very frustrating and even more so when you can’t do anything about it and it isn’t your fault. It’s even more frustrating I guess that it was my team-mate who caused it! I can’t go blaming anyone though, its just one of those things and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The conditions were horrible all weekend. In the first race you couldn’t see a thing going down to Redgate and the rest of the opening lap was more or less blind because of the spray. In the second race, the conditions were a bit better but it was still wet on track and when you are trying to avoid a collision in front of you, the conditions don’t help as it is much easier to have a spin when you’re on a wet track than if you are on a dry one.
