Dino Zamparelli's GP3 Diary - Spain

I'm back! The F1 circus visited the Catalunya circuit in Spain last weekend, and GP3 were there to join in on the fun.

As always, there are nine GP3 teams with three cars in each team. There are 26 other drivers on the grid, some with lots of experience, and some with a lot less. I think last year was important for me to understand how GP3 works and to know the tracks, so I was looking to use my experience to good effect this year! Free Practice took place on Friday evening. I was excited to get in and work on the set-up ready for qualifying on Saturday morning. Friday Free Practice is arguably one of the most crucial parts of the GP3 weekend. A wrong set-up during the 45-minute practice session can really set you back for the rest of the event. It's important to understand how the car is working with the set-up, as quickly as possible. The track had been used all day by F1, GP2 and Porsche cars, and GP3 were the last cars to drive on it. The track was ready to call it a day, but 27 GP3 cars had other ideas. It was a decent session for me, I finished up P8 and was feeling good about the potential in my car. There we no major issues to report...other than I felt immensely bloated from the pasta I ate at lunch. That's not a joke, I was that bloated that my mechanic had to loosen off my seat belt a bit. I felt like I was ready to give birth to a little child. My diet in the weeks leading up to the race weekend is very strict and contains a large amount of protein. Then a few days/hours before the sessions, I start loading up on carbohydrates, to build up on lots of energy - as delicious as the GP3 hospitality cooking is, I might do some digging to see what pasta they used. After practice, we had debriefs, dinner (to which I stuck with a simple salad to debloat) and data analysis in preparation for an early qualifying on Saturday morning. I got back to the hotel absolutely shattered at around 10pm. No time to even think, I was straight to sleep. At least, that's what I was planning. A GP3 race weekend is a rather tense affair with a lot of waiting time; so going to sleep straight away as if you're on a hugely comfortable double bed on a relaxing weekend in the Bahamas, is never quite the case! I eventually fell asleep around midnight, and woke up again at 5am. With qualifying at 9:30am, I wanted to have as much time to prepare and be ready for it. It's a racing driver's worst nightmare to miss qualifying due to oversleeping. It quite literally is a nightmare. Qualifying went well, I didn't quite get the maximum out of my car, but ART gave me a great car to drive, and I lined up sixth on the grid. There's still more work to do on my qualifying pace, but I was focussed on collecting big points from the races. If I'm totally and brutally honest, the less said about Race One as a really exciting race for everyone, the better really. I started sixth, held sixth around lap one, and held it quite comfortably for the remainder of the race. I can imagine the word 'comfortable' would have been used by nearly all the drivers. I didn't see one move take place ahead of me, and I certainly wasn't feeling any pressure from the guy behind me in seventh. I tried hard to close down on fifth place and put my German team-mate Mr Kirchoffer under pressure, but I just couldn't get close enough. Whether it's just the nature of the Barcelona circuit, or whether the aerodynamic changes on the 2014 GP3 car haven't quite worked yet, we don't know. Needless to say, it was a fairly low-key affair both inside and outside the car. Race Two however, was a different story. As much as I love the wet, I really prefer a wet race when I have a dodgy qualifying session, or when I'm starting from fairly low down the order and I can make up good ground on my competitors. Due to the GP3 reverse grid, a sixth-place finish in Race One meant I would start in third place for Sunday morning's race. I therefore did not appreciate it when Barcelona has been scorching hot all week, Monday to Saturday, and when I open the curtains in my hotel room on Sunday morning at 6am, I'm met with a wet street and dark grey clouds! How is that fair!? Not only that, but to just make sure the start of the race was going to be tricky, we had a ten-minute downfall of rain about an hour before the race. Yup, this first podium that I was chasing was going to be earned the very hard and challenging way! To make matters EVEN worse, I hurt my neck roughly about five minutes before the start of the race. It was unbelievable how many obstacles were popping up last minute, trying to stop me from getting that first podium! I went to put my helmet on to get ready in the car before we all assemble out on to the track, and I felt an almighty crack in my neck. I felt like I'd broken my neck and I couldn't move it to the right very much. After a few minutes, I got in the car and tried not to think about it. On the radio I snapped at my engineer for a few things...poor guy, he was only trying to help. I was in one of those moments where I could have gone either way, relax and take control of the situation, or become so annoyed and angry that my race would have ended in the gravel trap on lap one! I took a few deep breaths, apologised to my engineer and got on with the job in hand. I made a good start and held station in third place. The track was really wet and we were on slick tyres. They are THE hardest condition for any driver. It's so tough to know just where to hit the brakes, how hard to hit the brakes and just how much grip there he is. I almost went off the circuit on the warm up lap doing about 3mph! Luckily I spared my blushes and stayed on circuit for both the warm-up laps and the entirety of the race. It was a fun battle, I was close to second place and the leader throughout and at times felt I had bit more pace than those two ahead of me. However, I was conscious of getting too close to them and dicing too hard, as one false move, one slight error, and I was about to get mugged by Richie Stanaway, the Status GP car in fourth place. I was caught between attacking and defending and in the end I decided to play it safe. I held off the challenge from Stanaway with two laps to go, and then attempted to put the leaders under a bit of pressure. At the flag, Dean Stoneman won the race, Matheo Tuscher came second and I was happy to cross the line in third place to collect my first GP3 podium. Nothing was going to stop me getting that podium! I enjoyed standing alongside fellow Brit Stoneman. Big respect to Dean, who only two years ago was battling with cancer and has thankfully made a full recovery. Major kudos for that. As for me, I enjoyed my first weekend with my new team, ART Grand Prix. I picked up a lot of points on the opening weekend and picked up my first GP3 podium. Qualifying is an area that I'm keen to work on still, but as far as opening weekends go, it's good. The next round of the GP3 takes place in Austria in about five weeks' time. It's a shame as we miss the Monaco GP which is always a special event. I guess I'll have to enjoy watching it on TV! This is my first Sky Sports F1 blog of the year, so it may be a little on the rusty side. Give me time to warm up and clear off the rustiness! I will be doing one after every round, and hopefully give you all some cool insight into the GP3 weekends. After the first weekend, I feel more powerful and more confident. I can't wait to race my Bristol Sport ART car in Austria. That first win isn't far away... #TeamDino DZ Follow Dino on Twitter: @DinoZamparelli