Bucharest in Romania was the latest venue in the British F3 International Series and Max Chilton enjoyed the experience of racing around the streets of the capital.

Max finished both the races, an achievement that many of the more experienced drivers didn’t manage. He was on his way to a top ten result in the second of the races until he clipped the wall, puncturing a tyre and had to make a pit stop. Classified 19th in both of the races, Max left Romania with two more signatures on his licence and valuable street race experience.

The Herman Tilke designed circuit around the parliament buildings in the Romanian capital city of Bucharest was a new venue this season. A mixture of fast sections interspersed with tight chicanes and a roundabout; it was certainly a challenging venue.

In the two free practice sessions on Friday Max set about learning the track as the team determined the best set-up for the unusual circuit. By the time of the first qualifying session late on Friday afternoon, Max had come to terms with the demanding, bumpy Bucharestring and was enjoying himself.

The circuit was proving quite difficult to overtake on and in the first qualifying session Max struggled to find enough space to set a lap time that wasn’t compromised by catching a slower car. Disappointed, he ended up 21st at the end of the half hour session;

“I found that really frustrating. I could have been much higher, but every lap I did was affected by traffic. I know I’ve got to learn how to find enough space and with 32 cars it’s not going to be easy but I thought I had left big enough gaps to the cars in front and every time I caught them about half way round the lap. I guess I’ve just got to allow more space.”

The second of the qualifying sessions on Saturday morning was much better for Max. With the circuit still damp from overnight rain, he was immediately on the pace, setting 3rd fastest time early in the session. The circuit was drying rapidly and lap times were plummeting as Max pitted to adjust tyre pressures and have another crack at a fast time. Now he was dealing with the traffic much better than before and found space on his final lap to put him in 4th spot overall at that time. However, with the circuit getting drier and faster, each car that crossed the line after Max went a fraction quicker and by the end of the session Max’s time had put him 13th on the grid.

The first race was almost a non-event as only 7 of the scheduled 24 laps were not held under safety car conditions. Max had started well enough and kept out of trouble avoiding several crashes to finish 19th, but like most of the other drivers, he had found it frustrating;

“It just felt so strange to be driving slowly behind a safety car for so many laps. Right from the start people were crashing, bouncing off the walls and most of my attention was focused on not hitting any recovery cranes or marshals. When we were actually racing I never really got enough heat into the tyres so really all I was doing was driving round, trying to stay on and finish to get a signature.”

The second race was better in terms of safety cars, only twice was the racing interrupted. Max had a good opening part of the race and was comfortably running 11th closing down the pack in front when he slightly misjudged one of the chicanes and clipped the wall at the apex. It punctured his tyre and bent the suspension slightly so a pit stop was the only option. After rejoining with a new front wheel and tyre, but still with slightly deranged suspension, Max again drove just to finish the race. Even so he was classified 19th overall and had gained that vital signature on his licence;

“ I’m disappointed to have lost a good result. I was really pushing to catch the group in front and just made a mistake in a chicane. I only slightly caught the wall, but that was enough to do the damage and ruin my race. At least I finished, a lot of drivers had a worse race than me, and there are a lot of bent cars out there.”

Bucharest had been an interesting and challenging experience for Max and the team. Not great in terms of results, but Max had at times shown he could race at the pace of some of the front-runners in the Championship which has done his confidence no harm at all. It was also valuable experience of racing on a street circuit and the different type of demands that places upon a driver.

Returning to more familiar surroundings now, the British F3 International Series moves on to Snetterton in two weeks time. A circuit Max knows well and recent testing at the Norfolk venue has shown how competitive he can be there.