In the feature race the drive-through penalty I received for the accident with Adam Carroll affected my weekend completely, especially as I could maybe have finished eighth there which would have given me pole for the sprint. It was an unfortunate incident; I certainly wasn’t trying to do anything bad. When he left the door open I decided to make a dive but unfortunately we both aimed for the same piece of tarmac and touched. I don’t really think it was a situation I should have been blamed for. It’s difficult to call – the stewards look at the camera footage but they don’t always see the full situation. My race was damaged by that, and it left me starting down in 15th place for the sprint, so Sunday was always going to be a struggle and I had to do all the work again. That’s how racing is though, and it’s important to learn from these things.
The most recent round in Hungary was a tough weekend. The Hungaroring is a difficult circuit to learn if you’ve never been there before like I hadn’t, and that played a big part in my race meeting. I went there and the car wasn’t working great; it was quite difficult to drive and we were struggling around some parts of the circuit. Neither Adrian nor I had the answer to the problem, as two rookies on a track new to both of us and with a car that wasn’t perfect from the off. I think even if I had managed to put a very good lap together in qualifying we still wouldn’t have been that competitive. The races weren’t any less of a struggle either; I think we only made up as many positions as we did because a lot of cars failed to finish the first race. In the second race we were more competitive, but by then it was too late.
That was a weekend to forget, but now all eyes are on Istanbul this weekend and the following rounds. I haven’t been to Turkey before, but I think there are quite a few drivers that don’t know it that well, so we should stand a better chance there. I think it could be a good weekend for us like we had in Magny-Cours.
