Second qualifying was a lot hotter so getting a time in quickly before the tyres would overheat would be essential.
Firstly I had a short run of about 5 laps on my previous set of tyres used in qualifying one in the idea to find any little flaws that there may be as the track had changed due to the heat. After the first run on old tyres a new set were put on the car for a hot lap that would hopefully put me on pole.
After many laps of finding space and pushing I could not beat Gabriel’s time until the last couple laps when I started to hook the whole lap up together and to everybody’s surprise I managed to put in a faster lap by 0.05 of a second in which I clinched pole. I qualified 12th overall and 1st in class.
For the second race I knew it would be more difficult with Gabriel right behind me on the grid so getting a decent gap from him would help greatly. After warming the tyres up and making sure I had plenty of heat in them I rolled up to my grid slot and before any time at all the race was underway, my start this time was nothing more than an average getaway in which Gabriel seized his chance and got past me (to later on I found out he had jumped the start slightly).
After trying to keep up with him and pass other cars in the way the race I had to try and get fastest lap to get a point back in the likely event that Gabriel would finish in front of me. After following Daisuke Nakajima for most of the race and struggling to pass him I managed to get within 0.05 of a second in lap time but could not get any more out of the already past-it tyres.
In the end I had to settle for second place which cost me 6 points in my championship lead. Overall the weekend went well with leaving the circuit with as many points as I came with, great pace was shown and will continue to Donington Park where I feel a great couple of races will happen.
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