LE MANS WEEK: DELAYED ARRIVAL & CHALLENGING PRACTICE & QUALIFYING SESSIONS

This week didn’t get off to the best start unfortunately as Paul (Di Resta) and I landed quite late on Monday and almost missed our scrutineering spot. I was flying out from London with Paul and his flight was delayed from Canada after the F1 race (where he was commentating for Sky Sports) so we had to push back our flight. Then, due to weather, we had to divert to a different airport which meant we were even further away from Le Mans and then had to drive the last leg by car!

We literally managed to rush into scrutineering at the last minute and have photos taken before the heavens opened again - 10 secs longer and we would have been drenched! So not the ideal start to Le Mans week, plus I’d picked up a cold from somewhere!

That pretty much set the scene for the rest of the week as all the testing has been a bit of a rush really, what with many red flag stoppages, spins and slow zones. We managed to get quite a bit of running in on the Wednesday afternoon and evening but unfortunately the track wasn’t the best, so I went out at the start and never really went back out. Also, when it came to the night session, I was on a degrading tyre which knocked my confidence slightly especially after having such a positive test a couple of weeks ago.

However, last night was definitely an improvement, even though the first session was marred by slow zones and red flags again. But by the end of the session, in the night, my confidence came back up when I was putting in some good lap times. I also did a few laps in light rain close to midnight, which was good experience.

Overall I’m happy with the car at the moment and eager to start the 24 hour race proper tomorrow, but first we have the Driver's Parade around the town centre and I’m late. Must dash!