A hard ‘weekend at the office’ left Gosberton race ace Abbi Pulling down but far from out.
Racing in the second round of the GB3 Championship at Zandvoort, the home of the Dutch Formula 1 Grand Prix, she was unable to break into the top ten in any of her three races.
The reigning F1 Academy champion had to get herself up to speed, acclimatising to the faster and higher downforce of the Rodin Motorsport machinery. She was in the top-ten in her first qualifying lap but a red flag left her unable to improve on that and she ended up 13th on the timesheet, leaving her well down the grid.
Pulling said: “I just didn’t put the car where I think it was capable of – especially after the strong performance of Silverstone – but you learn more from days like these.”
Race one on Saturday afternoon was disrupted with an aborted start, with the race shortened by two minutes.
The 22-year-old had a difficult opening lap, struggling to generate tyre temperature and dropped to 16th. Lap six saw her move up to 15th and she gained another position a lap later on her way to a 14th-place finish.
Race two on Sunday morning saw Pulling embroiled in an early battle, putting up a robust defence, followed by a bold re-passing manoeuvre to maintain 13th spot.
As the race approached half distance, Pulling had closed in for the battle for 12th and was not far away from the top ten positions.
She finished 13th at the flag, despite closing in on the battle ahead with good tyre management, finishing just 1.7 seconds off 10th place.
In the final race of the weekend, Pulling made a good start in a frantic opening pair of laps, dicing with team-mate Alex Ninovic but retaining her position before the safety car was deployed at the start of lap three.
The race resumed on lap six, where Pulling had small contact with a rival on the exit of turn one before the safety car was again called out due to a three-car pile-up.
Pulling resumed in 11th place with just over two minutes to go and chased down a car ahead but missed out on a top-ten finish by just 0.4 seconds.
Pulling said: “It was a hard weekend in the office. I was struggling a bit with overall grip throughout the weekend but just missed out on the top-ten in the second and third races.
“I will be working hard on things I can improve on myself, alongside what we can do to make the car a bit more comfortable and get back to the results we have shown we are capable of.”
Pulling is next in action in GB3 Championship at Spa-Francorchamps on May 30-June 1. It will be her first time racing at the Belgian track and she said: “I’m looking forward to going racing again. It’s a track I’ve never been to.”
