Aug
31
Dean Smith: Chaos reigns at rainy Spa!
Hi everyone…well, Spa was certainly an eventful weekend on all levels but at least we came though it with two more points finishes and moved up into the championship top five as well.
Realistically I think fifth in the standings is the best we can hope for with only two races left at Monza less than two weeks from now. After the bad luck we’ve had this season in GP3 though, if we can end the championship in fifth place I’ll be pretty happy.
It’s definitely been a tough year and I thought it was about to get tougher after qualifying at Spa when I went off early in the session. We ran slick tyres from the start on the damp track expecting it to dry – which it did – but the car got away from me at Les Combes and that was the end of my run.
Even though we started at the back of the grid (29th place to be exact!) for the first race, I thought we might have a chance to come through quite well as I expected a few incidents. My start was good and I got to the edge of the top 20 on the first lap but then it all kicked off with a mad downpour.
We did a good job with our pit-stop around the time of the Safety Car and when we came out I was 10th which wasn’t bad at all after only a couple of racing laps from the back of the grid! It was just frustrating we couldn’t make any further progress with the race not re-starting as we had the right tyres for the conditions and I know I’d have been able to pass several of those on slicks ahead.
Some drivers were penalised for overtaking under the Safety Car so that boosted me into the top six after the race which was a pleasant surprise. This meant I started on the second row for the ‘reverse grid’ on Sunday and at the start everything went really well.
I got a good getaway and took second into La Source and then on the run from Eau Rouge I managed to get the lead. As the others battled I was able to pull out quite a good gap pretty quickly but I was a bit too cautious when it started to rain and that did cost me.
Even so, we came back out in second place after pitting for wets but the tyres just didn’t have any grip which was really strange. Still, finishing sixth and fourth wasn’t bad – especially after it all went wrong in qualifying. Thanks, as always, to the Racing Steps Foundation, Tomax and Carlin. Hopefully at Monza we can finish the year on the podium.
About Dean:
McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner Dean Smith is unquestionably one of the top, young single-seater racers on the globe and in 2010 gets his first taste of true international competition in new FIA Formula One World Championship support category GP3. After just three years in karting, Dean won a scholarship to race in Formula BMW UK in 2004 and went on to win the championship in his second season in the category. Named a BRDC Rising Star in 2007 and receiving his first nomination for the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award after becoming Formula Renault UK Vice-Champion, he raced in Eurocup Formula Renault in 2008 before coming back to the UK last year where he won the Formula Renault UK crown with an exceptional campaign. Dean’s graduation to GP3 this year with Carlin has been made possible by the support of the Racing Steps Foundation and Tomax. He is also one of the BRDC’s ‘Superstars’.