Salvador Duran admits he was lucky to be standing on the podium for the second time at
Silverstone after gearbox woes nearly forced him out on the final lap.
Already a winner over the weekend after storming to a dominant victory in the first race, Duran was looking good for an unprecedented double when he leapt up to second position from the start.
However, while he was able to keep up with race leader Giedo van der Garde for the most part, he struggled to find his way around lapped traffic and soon found himself back in third when Robert Wickens stopped and returned to the circuit ahead of both drivers.
“In the beginning we had the pace and we were beginning to catch up and after the pit-stop we were even quicker, but I lost time with traffic. I have to say, I was surprised to see Robert up ahead. I thought it was going to be close with me, so I was surprised to see him come out ahead of Giedo!
While Duran was still confident of mounting a challenge, he would eventually drop back in the latter stages when he began to struggle with gearbox problems to the point that the final lap was run in fourth and fifth gears only. Luckily for him, fourth place Esteban Guerrieri was too far back to catch him before the chequered flag, much to the Mexican's relief.
“I started to have problems with the gearbox with a few laps to go and on the last lap I had to do the whole circuit with just fourth and fifth gears, which was very difficult but luckily we had a big gap to fourth place.”
Meanwhile, Duran's landmark weekend has been rewarded with a move up to second place in the points' standings, although he remains 44 points adrift of leader van der Garde.
