Following that we went to Istanbul. The heat in Turkey made it very difficult for the cars and to cool down the engines, and at the starts the clutch was overheating. In the first race I stalled on the grid, so after that we just focussed on getting the fastest lap which we succeeded in doing. The next day I began from the back and was coming through the field, but then Mike Conway spun in turn twelve and hit my sidepod which put a hole in the radiator and left me with a water leak, so I had to stop because the engine was overheating.
The most recent round was in Belgium and it was very good to get pole position in Spa, both for me and for the team, especially because it is such a tough track and we had been struggling in qualifying since the beginning of the year. It was the first time since the start of the season we managed to get through free practice without any problems, and we were fifth-quickest there.
I felt quite confident for the race, because our set-up is usually very good over a race distance. I had a pretty good start and after that everything was under control. The first set of tyres was fairly difficult because the balance of the car wasn’t so good and we had some oversteer. Lucas di Grassi was pushing hard just behind and at Spa there are a lot of places to overtake, especially now with the new chicane, so I had to take care not to make any mistakes.
The most important thing for us was to get out of the pit-stop still in first position which we did; after that the car felt better, it was much easier for me to control the race and I was able to build up a gap between me and Filippi. To win the race five seconds in front of Luca was really good.
It was very nice to win again, for me and for all the mechanics who have worked so hard. Obviously it came very late – it would have been better if it had been back at the beginning of the season – but at least we did it, and to do so in Spa was particularly pleasing. It was a good weekend for all the team.
