Silverstone, the home of British Motorsport played home to round three of the Championship. We would be on the full GP circuit for the 2 hour race in which strategy would play a crucial part in.
Friday testing went well but I knew there was still time on the table heading into race day. Friday had been dry but heavy rain greeted us on the morning of the Saturday race. I had not driven in the wet for some time, so knew I would need to draw on all my experience. Paul was first to drive in the challenging conditions. He adapted quickly and put in strong pace with the limited grip. He pitted and I jumped behind the wheel, as I left the pits the rain started to intensify. I knew that the heavier rain would make track conditions worsen so my first lap would need to be strong. My first lap was a 1.27.5 which was great but my second was half a second faster as I got more used to the conditions. I pitted for a tyre pressure check halfway through the session but my times did not improve. Two laps from the end of the session the rain started to ease off. Track conditions were at their best on my last lap and I was able to go another four tenths faster. My best time of the session put me on class pole and second on the overall grid. I was ecstatic when I found out but also slightly nervous for my first ever front row start.
The pitlane for the race opened and in complete contrast the track was now completely dry. I was filled with a huge amount of pride as I pulled into my front row grid position in front of a swarm of our sponsor guests. The guests enjoyed the race from the incredible views which the BRDC suite located at Brooklands gives. As the lights went out to start the race the faster GT3 car on pole streaked away from me. I faced some pressure on the inside of turn one but held my second place position. During my stint I put in some very fast and consistent laps holding the class lead but losing positions as some of the higher class cars recovered from their poor qualifying positions. I grew the class lead to approximately one minute by the time for my pitstop approached. However it was about this time the rain started to fall again on the pit straight. The other side of the track remained dry and comfortably driveable on the slick tyres. On the radio I as being told that no more rain was coming and which tyres would be needed in the pitstop. I elected to stay on slicks based on the localised rain on the start straight but as Paul left the pits the rain had spread to the rest of the track. He had to use all of his skill to keep the car on the wet track and wisely pitted the next lap for wets. In typical English weather fashion the rain shortly stopped so he had to find the wet parts of the track to stop the wet tyres from overheating on the drying tarmac. He was able to be consistently quick but the out lap on the dry tyres cost us a lot of time. We had dropped to second place in class where we finished. The race ended under the saftey car which really helped save the wet weather tyres as by the end of the race the track was almost completely dry again.
I was delighted to achieve another podium with the the team but slightly disappointed that I had grown such a big lead during the opening stint of the race which was spoiled by my tyre choice. I had to take some comfort though that I was told no more rain was coming and I had a brilliant qualifying.