Girolami denied podium after determined drive in Hungary

I'm really disappointed to lose this podium position, particularly after such a hard-fought drive in Race Two. I had a really good launch and managed to get into second; I actually started better than the leader but I decided to stay behind and changed the line minimally under braking, as I was following the leader and was close to him, but I also knew that the outside line rarely works because you get a lot of wheelspin on the exit. There was unfortunately this small contact with another car but for me it was just an unlucky touch. Despite this frustration, I'm really proud of the job myself and ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport did this weekend, especially the qualifying performance and how we managed the 60kg of compensation weight today, which was a much harder task than in qualifying.

It wasn't the best weekend in terms of pace, but I would say considering the compromised starting position we had for both races we managed quite a positive Sunday to go from 12th on the grid twice and secure two eighth-place finishes. Getting there at the start was important and then being able to maintain position was OK both times, even though in Race One we were quite far from having a balance in the car that was good to drive with. In Race Two we improved it a bit and managed to maintain a good pace until the finish to score some good points, which was our target this weekend.

We anticipated that it was going to be a hard weekend, so performance-wise I think we actually exceeded expectations a bit even though we had such a heavy car. Qualifying was very tight and unfortunately that result affected the weekend a little bit. In Race One I was pushed out by a competitor and lost a few positions, then I spent the whole race with my team-mates. And in Race Two I had another good start, but I was on the outside of the first corner - I didn't have a lot of choice with positioning - and contact meant I lost positions again. There's still a long way to go in the championship and we're not giving up, so we'll try to use the long break to prepare for a strong last part of the season.

It was a tough weekend, made more difficult by qualifying, but today the goal was to collect as many points as possible. I think I maximised what we were capable of from my starting positions. Race One was difficult and I didn't position the car too well into the first corner, and spent a lot of the race fighting, but it was good to bring some points home. I had a better start in Race Two and a good position at Turn 1, which meant I gained a few places, before settling into 10th. Even though there wasn't much going on it was really tricky with the compensation weight we were carrying; this situation should be a little different at the next race.

It's tough to see this penalty for Nestor after the race, as a podium is the reward he and the crew deserved after the work they have done to fine-tune the package this weekend. Despite this, it was still positive to see that performance extracted from the car, and for all four drivers to score points in both races - especially getting three cars into the top 10 twice. Now we have a long break once again, but there is a lot for us to prepare for with so many unknowns going into the second half of the calendar, where every track will be new.