AT&T Williams F1

My Monza weekend was disappointing because it was the first time since Monaco at the end of May that I failed to score any points. I'm still lying fifth in the Championship, but the points situation is now very close.

I'd never previously driven at Monza and my first experience of the track came two weeks before the race, when I tested the ATT Williams FW29. The weather at the test was good and I was able to complete more than 100 laps, which prepared me well for the GP2 races.

However, we didn’t hit the ground running in GP2 practice. My Dams Dallara lacked straightline speed and I ended up only 18th fastest. We discovered after the session that we’d been running the car too low to the ground, which resulted in it bottoming out along each straight and scrubbing off speed. We raised the ride height for qualifying and the situation improved immediately. I drove a really good lap - one of my best of the season - to set the fourth fastest time, 1.2 seconds quicker than my best lap in practice.

But that was as good as my weekend got.

Race one started well because I climbed up to third place by the time of the first Safety Car on lap two. But I lost time during my pitstop and dropped to fifth place, after which I had a good fight with Luca Filippi and Xandi Negrao. Two more Safety Car periods followed and I then hit one of them at Turn 1, which resulted in the stewards excluding me from the results. I think it was a harsh decision.

Race two was always going to be tough from the back of the grid. As a result, my main target was to obtain a Championship point by setting fastest lap. I saved my tyres early in the race and even made a pitstop to adjust the tyre pressures. But the balance of the car wasn’t good – certainly not as good as in qualifying – and I didn't manage to set fastest lap, which was frustrating.

After such a disappointing weekend at Monza, it’s good that the next race is coming around quickly. I’ve never been to Spa-Francorchamps before, so I'll try to drive around it in a hire car before the start of practice on Friday. I’ve heard it’s a great track, with lots challenging corners, so I can’t wait to get started.

Until next time,

Kazuki