Gustavo Menezes had to dig deep in the fiercely-contested FIA Formula 3 European Championship at Hockenheim, after a troubled qualifying left him needing to fight his way through in the races – but a determined recovery secured the talented young American a double points haul and preserved his top ten position in the title standings.Menezes arrived at the celebrated German Grand Prix venue for the second outing of the 2015 campaign optimistic about his prospects around a circuit that he knew well from his rookie year in Europe in the ATS Formel 3 Cup in 2013 – even triumphing there in the season finale.That experience looked set to pay dividends in qualifying, as the highly-rated California native repeatedly threatened the top end of the timing screens come both rain and shine, but a combination of traffic and red flags just when he needed them the least left him an unrepresentative 11th on the grid for races one and two and tenth for race three amongst the 35 protagonists – the indisputable crème de la crème of up-and-coming open-wheel stars, with European F3 widely regarded as the toughest junior single-seater series on the planet.In the opening encounter, heavy rain sent up rooster-tails of spray, generating treacherous conditions and distinctly limited visibility – and no fewer than three safety car interventions to clear up incidents lower down the field reduced the number of laps and made it impossible to settle into a rhythm. In the circumstances, Menezes fought well to take tenth place at the chequered flag aboard his #4 Jagonya Ayam with Carlin-prepared, Volkswagen-powered Dallara single-seater.The following day dawned dry, and one of his trademark excellent getaways in race two vaulted the 20-year-old immediately up to eighth. He then lined himself up perfectly to gain further ground at the tight hairpin, only for the duelling pair ahead to tangle and force him off-track in avoidance.Thereafter, he had to switch his attentions towards staving off the threat from a marauding pack behind, led by Lotus F1 Junior Team Driver Alex Albon and reigning McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award winner George Russell. Under intense pressure and earning himself plenty of live television coverage on Motors TV, Menezes doggedly defended both his line and his position to wind up seventh – just reward for a gritty performance.The heavens opened again with a vengeance in time for race three, leaving puddles of standing water on the track. The WH Sports Group protégé endured an early 360° spin before battling back to 11th, right in the wheeltracks of the eighth-placed scrap and missing out on a points-scoring hat-trick by less than three-quarters-of-a-second.Still, the outcome maintained Menezes’ top ten championship spot, and acknowledging that his Hockenheim results were very much conditioned by his qualifying woes, he is in no doubt as to where the focus needs to be heading next to Pau in France – the narrowest circuit on the European F3 calendar, and one at which grid position is crucial.“We began the weekend looking pretty strong, and I felt positive about our chances going into qualifying because we knew from practice that we had good pace,” recollected the former Jim Russell Driver Scholarship Award winner. “Unfortunately, due to a combination of red flags and catching traffic at precisely the wrong moment in the first session, I only managed to get one proper ‘flying’ lap in – frustratingly, I had to abort another when I was already six tenths up on my previous best, which would have put us inside the top three.“It was a similar story in the second session; we were well in the mix and my first two splits were encouraging, but then I seemed to come across traffic in the final sector every single lap – we never got a completely clear run, and that cost us. It just goes to show how quickly your weekend can be turned upside-down. From there, it was always going to be a case of damage limitation, because whilst we were comfortably fast enough to race at the front, with the level of aerodynamic downforce on these cars it’s never easy to overtake.“The conditions were amongst the worst I’ve ever seen in race one, and it didn’t help that my visor misted up because water got in it – braking for some corners was downright scary, as I literally couldn’t see a thing! We clung on, though, and I was pleased to make it to the end and come away with another point in the bag.“Together with my engineer, we made a few changes to the set-up for race two; I wanted to run lower downforce so that we would pick up less understeer in the dirty air of cars in front after our experience the previous day – and then we ended up in clean air virtually the whole way through!“The intention was to have sufficient top speed to be able to overtake down the straights, but instead of attacking, the delay on the opening lap meant I had to defend and we were particularly vulnerable through the tight, twisty Stadium section. I was relieved when George came along to fight with Alex later on, because it eased the pressure on me a little and seventh was a solid result from where we’d started.“In race three, after my mistake early on, we were quicker than the guys directly ahead, but visibility was so bad that there was just no way past – I caught them back up pretty rapidly, but then couldn’t do anything about it. It was a shame to miss out on another points-scoring finish, but ultimately everything stemmed from qualifying – it becomes a very difficult weekend when you begin much further down the order than you should be.“We know our racecraft is strong, but the bottom line is that if we want to be fighting for podiums and wins – and that’s our target – we need to make sure we are starting in the right area of the grid, and that will never be more so the case than at Pau. We’ve got plenty of work ahead of us between now and then, but we are confident in our potential. We learned a lot at Hockenheim, and once we get qualifying sorted and put the whole race weekend together, we’ll be in really good shape!”