dents his impressive progress in FIA Formula 3 European Championship

ADD Motorsports driver Mitchell Gilbert was left disappointed after a weekend with just one Top 10 finish denting his impressive progress in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship.

After celebrating his best weekend so far in the last round at Pau, he found the going tougher at the Hungaroring.

The Australian finished ninth in Race 1 but couldn’t find the pace that had served him so well during previous rounds.

But by the third race, despite a drive through penalty, his pace was close to what it had been before - which at least gave him something to be positive about by the end of the weekend.

He said: “It was a case of one step forward, two steps back, so it was disappointing.

“We were a long way away from where we have been and where we know we should be.

“After such a good weekend in Pau, it was pretty frustrating to have fallen so far – it was a shock to everyone.

“We couldn’t quite put our finger on what was wrong. There was an electronics problem in the first practice, but after that we didn’t have the same pace we’ve had.

“There were at least some positive signs towards the end of the weekend when we were seventh fastest, it just came too late to make any difference this time.”

Mitchell, 20, finished sixth and fifth in the last two races at Pau, to score more points than he managed during the whole of last season.

But this time around there were problems during the first practice session that put the team on the back foot.

Mitchell qualified in 16th place and for Race One did well to finish ninth and be in thepoints, despite the lack of pace.

He continued: “We tried different things in the first qualifier and the first race to try to work out what was wrong, but we couldn’t find the pace we had before and I couldn’t keep up with the group in front of me.

“It was a positive that even on a difficult weekend when things aren’t going right we can still finish ninth.”

Mitchell, now living in Twickenham, finished 14th and 16th in the next two qualifiers, again, far away from where they had been in previous rounds.

In Race 2, Mitchell, did well to get back from 14th to finish 11th – frustratingly one place off the points.

The final race saw Mitchell, again, close down the drivers in front of him, getting up to 12th from 16th. But he was given a drive-through penalty for exceeding track limits, which left him in last place by the end.

However, it gave him some clear track time to see if the pace was there, and by the end he had managed to find some pace that had him seventh fastest.

He added: “The drive through was harsh I thought, but at least it let me have a clear run when the pace was almost back to where it had been.

“The set up didn’t seem to be right, so it was tough.

“We needed to have everything together for qualifying, but we were a long way off.

“It ended on a fairly positive note which was something and to get in the points when you’re off the pace is a good effort.

“But we are going to try to get a test in before the next race to make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen again.

“Hopefully we will be back to where we were by the next round.”