When we needed a bit of luck the most to take advantage of our good starting position I didn't get any. I got a bit too much wheel spin at the start but didn't lose much time. However, when I got to the first corner I got knocked
way out into the boondocks of the Turn 1 runoff and lost several positions making my way back from the hotel to the track it felt like. I was
that far off into the runoff.
Once I got back into the race, I started to try and make up positions but it was extremely difficult to pass at that track. I made a couple positions at the end of the first lap but from then on it was a difficult race chasing the car right in front of me. I knew our car was fast but I just had to figure out a way past the car ahead because the rest of the field was far up the road.
Toward the end of the race I finally got a good run on this guy – and I will brag about this pass because it was probably one of my best of the season. It was one of those "go big or go home" moments and I just went for it. As soon as I got by him I pulled a huge gap on the cars behind because, as I thought, the car was really fast in clean air. I set some quick lap times but that was about it, the race was over and I ended right where I started in P13. Not much to say about that, the car was good but we were in the wrong place at the wrong time so on to race two.
Guess what? It was raining for race two. I'm sure no one is surprised by that with all the crazy weather we've had this season. The last time we had a fully wet start I had a pretty horrendous amount of wheel spin so I really focused on just getting off the line well this time.
Everyone seemed to get pretty inconsistent starts I made up a couple positions in front of me but then one guy behind me blew past me like he was in the dry! I felt like I made up a few positions after the first two corners but, heading into Turn 4, I braked late and everyone else braked early – which meant I went straight into the back of the car in front of me, because there was no open track left to avoid anyone.
I hit him pretty hard, which I thought meant my wing would be gone but it was, in fact, still there (just slightly askew) so I kept pushing. I could feel and hear that it was rubbing my left-front tire and it was causing some interesting handling characteristics. I got around to the penultimate corner and did a 360. If it were the X Games or something I would have scored big points, because it was pretty perfect but I was, however, not competing in the X Games. I only lost one position during the spin and kept on it.
The safety car came out and the team was able to check out the front wing as I went down the front straight. I didn't actually know how bad it was but they said it looked like it should hold together, so I was all right with that.
At the restart, I started to make up a few positions. The car was good in the wet – as it usually is – and it was pretty fun to drive despite the damage. Unfortunately, we just lost too much time at the beginning with the contact and the spin to really take advantage of the conditions. With one lap to go, I was ninth when the car right in front of me spun and I had to go off the track again to avoid him. I lost two positions because of that and ended up 11th at the line.
It was disappointing because I really thought Hungary would have been our best weekend. We made a lot of progress with the car and definitely learned a lot over the weekend but the races didn't go our way. As they say, "That's racing."
After the race in Hungary, GP3 had a bit of a summer break until the next race in Spa, which meant it was time for a visit to my homeland the U.S. of A! However I made a quick stop at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit for a track day on my way home. I needed to do some laps at the track considering I'd never been there before. It was absolutely incredible! I did the track day in a Caterham and it was a lot of fun. The weather was perfect and I was able to do a lot of laps. Quite a nice pit stop on the way back home, if you ask me.