ADD Motorsports driver Mitchell Gilbert was happy to leave a difficult weekend in the GP3 Series in a positive frame of mind.

The Australian didn’t have the best of starts in Budapest – a track notorious for making it difficult to overtake.

But he used the final race to his advantage to get used to the starts that had been troubling him and try a few other things out to help him move forward.

And with his best lap time being faster than the leader, he left happy knowing progress had been made.

He said: “Budapest is a difficult to track to make much headway on, so if you aren’t great in qualifying overtaking is pretty hard and you are left at the back following everyone else.

“We said it was a learning weekend – it was better to leave the weekend having taken something away from it, than just being at the back.

“I went into the pits and straight out again in Race Two to get away from everyone else and it was great to see the pace there.

“It was a hard weekend, but we definitely felt like we took a lot away from it.”

Mitchell ran on two sets of tyres during qualifying, with his pace slower with the first set compared to his practice pace. But after changing to the second set, a red flag left him only able to get 1 lap in and back in 14th place. A couple of drivers also got penalties which pushed him up to 12th.

But in Race One he struggled with the clutch and lost a few places at the start and then found it difficult to overtake and get anywhere.

He finished in 20th, but his pace was quick enough to have finished eighth if he had got a better position and start.

The team decided that rather than waste the next race, they would try to work on a few things in Race Two.

He got a better start and managed to gain a place and then he went into the pits to get a clear run around the track.

Although he finished 24th, his best lap was five-tenths quicker than the best lap of the leader.

He added: “I was struggling with my starts, so it was good to try a few new things in Race Two – it really felt like we had something positive to leave with.

“We decided it wasn’t about results this weekend, it was about learning and addressing a few issues.

“Hopefully if we put everything together, we’ll be really strong. It’s all there, but we just need it all to come together at the same time.

“I’m sure we’re almost there though.”