I drove all the way from Ireland to Estoril five days before the race on my own. A very enjoyable experience and it gave me time to be on my own and concentrate on the opportunity that I had been handed. From the moment I stepped in the GR SEAT Leon it never missed a beat all weekend. It’s quite unbelievable to get into a car that you have total confidence in, it gives me more confidence.
The race weekend got off to a good start by qualifying fourth. It was very changeable weather all week and I had hit some seriously wet weather on my drive down through France and Spain, I think the bad weather followed me all the way down to Portugal. The heavens opened on race day, and the race was delayed because of the rain. I had a mega warm up posting P2 behind Alex Zanardi but knowing that there was another second in the car and me. I was in good shape for the races.
Ryan Sharp was my team-mate for the weekend, a driver with a pretty hefty CV in terms of results. I liked this because I knew he would be a good benchmark and I also get on well with him, he is a laid back fun guy to be around. He was flying pretty much all weekend, it was taking me a bit longer to get used to front wheel drive again but by Sunday morning I was on it. I finished both races in second and finished second in the overall ETC standings, a result that was so welcome after the year that I had had. I scooped enough points for Ireland to finish third in the Nations Cup also. Looking back on it I should have capitalised on a second lap manoeuvre that I tried on Sharp in the second race but I didn’t want to jeopardise both our races and also a one-two for the team, but had I got ahead, I would have been a hard guy to beat for the race win.
![Emmet O'Brien - GR Asia [pic credit: FIA ETCC]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/276153.jpg)
