BACK TO FRONT VICTORY FOR BULLER AT SILVERSTONE
William Buller produced one of the best performances of his career to secure a stunning victory in his home round of the GP3 Series at Silverstone.
William, from Scarva in County Down, recovered from an unfortunate retirement in the first race of the weekend to take a dominant victory in race two - despite being forced to start from the back of the grid.
Having been twelfth quickest in Friday practice, held in atrocious wet conditions, William produced a solid performance in qualifying on Saturday morning to post the eighth quickest time, despite yellow flags ending his hopes of securing a better grid position.
Promoted to seventh on the grid thanks to a ten place penalty handed to Conor Daly for an incident in the previous round in Valencia, William went into the opening race of the weekend on Saturday confident of challenging for victory in difficult wet conditions that had earlier caused F1 qualifying to be halted for more than an hour.
Unfortunately, an incident at turn one saw William retire before a lap was completed and left him last on the grid for the second 14 lap encounter - with starting positions decided by the result of the opening race.
A wet circuit greeted the drivers for the second race on Sunday morning, but with rain no longer falling, drivers and teams faced a gamble on which tyres to fit for the start.
With nothing to lose from the back of the grid, William elected to go with slick tyres on his car, and he made up places on the opening lap despite a lack of grip on the wet circuit. However, as the track started to dry, William's decision to fit dry tyres paid off handsomely as he was able to lap noticeably quicker than the majority of the field, who had started the race on wet rubber.
Making up further places, William stormed towards the front of the field and on the tenth lap, he moved into the lead with a fine move on Patric Niederhauser at Becketts. With the rest of the field unable to match his pace, William drove away at the front to secure his maiden GP3 victory by more than eight seconds in front of a bumper home crowd and the watching Formula 1 team bosses.
William's victory capped a fine weekend for his Carlin team, with team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa having taken the team's first win in the series in Saturday's opening race.
It's fantastic to have taken my first GP3 victory, and to get it in my home race and from the back of the grid is even more special, William said. The first race was disappointing as I was forced wide at turn one and was then hit as I rejoined, which damaged the suspension. There was nothing I could do and it meant I was really on the back foot for race two.
I knew from qualifying that we had the pace as I missed out on setting a quick time because of yellow flags, so when it was damp on Sunday morning I knew we had a chance. I have plenty of experience of racing in those conditions from British F3 and it was a case of just being careful early on. After the first few laps I could see that the guys on wets didn't have an advantage over me, so I just got my head down and the race came to me. I had to be patient and not make any stupid moves but I was so much quicker than the guys on wets and it was a great feeling to cross the line and secure the victory.
It's great for Carlin to get two wins in a weekend and to take their first victories in GP3, but it's also a massive boost for me as the step into GP3 has been a challenge after two seasons in F3. I knew it would take time to get up to speed with a new car and new tyres and hopefully this result will be the springboard for more strong results in the second half of the season.
William's next race outing will come next weekend when he takes part in the F3 Masters at Zandoort.
