Friday practice at Croft went well, with fourth and third places in the two sessions. I was happy with the car and feeling confident in myself and with the track.
For qualifying the next day it then rained, which put a question mark over many things – and not being on the track at the right moment meant I was unable to set a good lap time when the tyres and conditions were at their best. This showed in both sessions as I qualified towards the back of the grid.
I was still quietly confident, though, because from testing I knew our race pace was good – but then in the first race, my clutch broke at the start, costing me lots of time. I recovered to ninth, but my steering support later broke, too, so my progress was stopped. Fortunately, I managed to hold position to the chequered flag.
In the second race, I was fast and I made a good start. I got up to sixth and was catching the group in front while it was raining – people making mistakes made my job easier to pick them off. I got into third and pushed hard in an effort to try to catch second. I was taking about six-tenths-a-lap out of him, but then a big sideways moment a few laps from the end convinced me to calm it down a little and just settle for third.
We had a few problems over the course of the weekend, so to get my first podium in Formula Renault UK was a really good outcome at the end of it. Hopefully it will be the first of many, and we can take that confidence on to the next round at Snetterton.