Summarize

South African Raoul Hyman produced two determined drives to claim a double-points finish on his GP3 series debut over the Spanish Grand Prix weekend at the Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona. In spite of his great rookie result however, Hyman certainly had his work cut out for him.

“Track conditions were completely different to what we had experienced in pre-season testing,”  Raoul, who had impressed during strong pre-season testing pace at the circuit in April explained. “The balance of my Campos GP3 car changed dramatically as the track rubbered in during the Formula 1 weekend and with only one forty minute practice session to prepare, we could not find a setup that worked. 

“Still, I managed to qualify 12th and I set my target to finish 8th in race 1, which would give me the reverse grid pole position for Race 2. “I had an almighty battle in the first race and I achieved my objectives by fighting my way through to take 8th on the last corner of the final lap.”

“After all that, I made a poor getaway in race 2 and dropped to third by the end of the first lap,” Raoul reflected. Hyman had a precautionary clutch change just before the race, following an inspection of his teammate’s car and with insufficient time to find the clutch bite point, he was a little tardy off the start.

“I was determined to fight back, but we just lacked the pace of the front runners this weekend — pushing harder merely overheated the tyres and made the situation worse. “To make it worse, my biggest time loss was in the final sector, which meant that I was vulnerable down the straight to those using DRS - like Vettel was to Hamilton in the main race — and I hung on to finish 7th.

“I’m a little disappointed with how it all panned out,, but I scored valuable points on my GP3 debut,” Raoul concluded. “We have a relatively long gap to Round 2 at the Red Bull Ring, so I’ll be working with the team in Valencia to make sure that we can show our true pace come the Austrian race. “Thanks so much to Campos Racing for the support this weekend — we have the pace to fight at the front and I look forward to repaying my team with top results next time out — bring it on!”