I had been looking forward to racing at Spa all year: it is one of my two favourite circuits, and I was expecting to have a great weekend there. But first I had a nice job to do when Honda rang me to ask if I could test for them: all of the
F1 teams have extra days for testing their young drivers, and I went to Barcelona to find that the whole circuit was open just for me!
It was a great day, and it is an amazing feeling to be at the middle of everything like that. I drove all day and gave my feedback to the team and the test manager told me I did a good job, and then the next day Ross Brawn rang me too, just to tell me that he'd heard I did a great job! That certainly put me in a good mood for the trip to Belgium!
When I got to Spa we went through the usual routine, talking about set ups and going around the circuit, and I had a real feeling that this was going to be a great weekend for me. Free practice showed that the car was good, even though we went the wrong way on gear ratios: the pace was really good in the second sector, and that's the longest section of the track.
In qualifying it started to rain right before the start of qualifying, but really I didn't mind: we were still fast, and I was 8th on the wet circuit when we had a red flag and everyone came in. When we went out again it had stopped raining but the circuit was still quite slippery, and I just lost the car unfortunately: it was my mistake, but it meant that we lost qualifying and would be 20th on the grid, which meant a tough day ahead of me, for sure.
There was more bad luck when we had more rain just before the start of the first race: they decided to start the race behind the safety car, and I have to say that I wasn't too happy about that because I really wanted a proper start so that I could make up some places. Honestly it was possible: okay, the circuit was still wet but we are supposed to be good racing drivers, one level below
Formula 1, so why not let us start normally?
Still, there was nothing we could do, so we went for 2 laps and finally the safety car pulled away and we could race. By that time it had stopped raining and we could push a little, and I was just waiting to be able to change to slicks: I think maybe we stopped one lap too late, but after everyone changed there was another safety car anyway because of Valsecchi's crash, so we were stuck anyway.
Really I just pushed all race, and by the end I was up to 10th position, which is not too bad after all, but just on the last corner Kobayashi suddenly came from nowhere and hit me out of the race! I still can't believe it: it was just crazy, and there was nothing I could do. So now, instead of 10th I finished 20th in the pitlane, and Kobayashi got away with it completely, with no penalty.
The team were really upset too: all of their hard work was for nothing, and then they had to repair the damage to my car overnight so I could get on the grid again on Sunday morning, but they did an amazing job because the car they prepared was fantastic.
Once again it started to rain just before the start of race two, but this time it was a bit less water and they let us start normally: perfect! I made a great start and was 10th by the end of the first lap, right with Senna and di Grassi! We had a nice fight all the way, and we could also push forward, so it looked like I was going to get some points after all!
Unfortunately there was another safety car, and we were all waiting to go again when someone in front braked hard, and I had to go to the left so I didn't hit Senna: di Grassi and Kobayashi went left and overtook us both, but suddenly Nunes came from nowhere and just hit me so hard that I had to retire, and suddenly I had nothing once again.
If you look at where di Grassi finished you can see that I would definitely have scored some more points, and honestly I'm a bit frustrated: for sure the team and I did a great job in Spa, and the car was so fast, but I got knocked out of both races and there was nothing I could do. I guess that's racing, but it means that we are going to just work even harder to get big points at my other favourite circuit this weekend, in Monza.
Until next time,
Luca
For more information on Luca Filippi, visit http://www.lucafilippi.com.
![Luca Filippi - Arden International [pic credit: GP2 Series]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/482267.jpg)
