Nico's European GP Column

Posted on Tuesday 26 Aug 2008 and tagged with europe, valencia, nico.

The European Grand Prix was an enjoyable weekend. The new Valencia street track was interesting and challenging to drive and our FW30 was reasonably competitive from the outset. To finish eighth, my first points’ finish since Turkey, was a nice reward for everyone at AT&T Williams.

It was exciting to visit somewhere new, although the engineers must have felt they knew the track pretty well by the time they arrived because of all the set-up simulations they’d carried out at the factory. Overall, we felt pretty well prepared for the race, but there was still some apprehension ahead of Friday’s first practice session and I think that was the same up and down the pitlane.

From a driving point of view, the track was great and I really want to congratulate the organisers for doing such a great job. Many of the corners were faster than I expected and the walls were never far away, so you had to treat the track with a lot of respect. I still managed to learn it quickly and I thought my second fastest time during Saturday’s final practice session was a reflection of the good job we did all weekend.

I was pleased to make Q3 for the first time since Canada and I raced well from ninth on the grid to bring the car home eighth. The ambient temperature was more than 30 degrees on race day, which resulted in cockpit temperatures of more than 40 degrees, but the heat didn’t pose a problem to me and I was able to drive what felt like qualifying laps every lap.

From here I head to Monza, where I’m testing for two days this week, before heading to Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgian Grand Prix on 7th September. I love Spa because it’s a long, flowing track with some challenging fast corners. Due to its location in the Ardennes, however, there isn’t much to do in the evenings and I won’t even be able to watch the Olympics on TV! Ah well, there’s always internet poker..

We have a few developments coming for Spa, so let’s hope that my return to the points in Valencia was the start of a series of strong finishes to end the season.

See you soon,

Nico