The new Valencia race was one of the ones I had been looking forward to most this season – so to come away from it with no points was disappointing.
In truth we struggled for pace all weekend.
During free practice we were up against it and then in qualifying we really had to risk a lap to get into the top 10.
My Trident Racing team-mate Ho-Pin Tung was also having problems, so from a team perspective it wasn’t good.
We just lacked grip all weekend and we didn’t really seem to find an answer.
I managed to salvage ninth on the grid with my last lap in qualifying and we hoped things would improve from there by trying a different set-up for the race.
Sadly a clutch problem put paid to those hopes on the opening lap.
An electrical connector to the hydraulic pump failed which meant I basically had no gears.
My early retirement meant I saw the weekend’s big GP2 controversy unfold on the TV screens, when five cars ran out of fuel.
We knew it was going to be tight on the fuel before the race, so we accounted for that and didn’t do any drive-throughs down the pit lane – although early exits for Ho-Pin and myself meant we didn’t find out if either car would have gone the distance.
But we knew that the guys who were going through the pit lane and doing extra formation laps like Bruno Senna and Alvaro Parente would struggle.
I think that when you try to put fuel back in the car, when the car is warmed up, and the fuel expands you are going to actually struggle to get fuel in the tank.
In the end to see Parente run out of fuel a good lap and a half before the end and then the others guys with half a lap to go, it was a bit of a cock-up really.
Sunday’s sprint race saw me make the chequered flag this time – but although I finished ninth after starting towards the back, it was still disappointing as I thought we could have done better.
My start was a bit poor and I lost a couple of places, before making them back up over the next couple of corners.
I continued to move up the order after pulling off some good overtaking moves and benefited from other people crashing – but after reaching the edge of the top 10 I couldn’t really get much further.
Looking back at the event as a whole, I thought the organisers did a pretty good job with the circuit and it is only likely to get better in years to come.
The setting is quite cool, with the America’s Cup buildings, and from the things I saw myself, like being able to get to the circuit with no traffic, the event was handled well.
As for the track itself, they could do with making it a bit more challenging,
The first chicane could be improved as the kerbs they used were a bit awkward, so maybe they could use different kerbs or have the Armco a bit tighter.
Also, as you go down the back straight into the right-left-left-right section, it is a bit too open really – if you make a mistake you can just run off wide and go through the big run-off areas.
With some more Armco there it would become a bit more of a test, although it may end up costing people a bit more money in repairs!
Looking ahead to the final part of the season now, and Spa and Monza are really two fantastic circuits to end the GP2 year on.
Spa is undoubtedly one of my favourites and hopefully we can get things right from the get go, find a good baseline set-up and target points finishes.
Last year we scored in both races and I’m optimistic it will be good for us again.
Monza should be too, especially as I’m with an Italian team and they obviously really want to do well at that one.
The championship will be settled over the final week of the season, with Giorgio Pantano holding a 13 point advantage ahead of Senna, with Lucas di Grassi a further seven back.
I think Giorgio has got more raw speed than the other two, is very strong at Monza and he’s pretty good at Spa too, so would be my bet to clinch it.
Whatever happens it is bound to be a good battle, and it could even work in our favour if they play the percentages and don’t push for outright race wins so much.
We would like to win again for sure, or at least get on the podium, to cap my second year of GP2 so hopefully things work in our favour over the final two weekends.
