Thursday

Marcel drove me round the circuit on Thursday and it was really good to see the track from a car. There are some quite big slopes and climbs which you dont really see on television and some blind corners that require a lot of commitment. It was quite funny -- the track was being prepared for the weekend so there were other vehicles around, going round Coppice we met a van going the wrong way, coming straight at us! The grid was being painted so Marcel drove on to the grass to go round the bollards and there was a big truck parked at Redgate -- it was not exactly a flying lap! But it was good fun and really interesting to see the track from a drivers (well, nearly) point of view.

Friday

It poured with rain all day on Friday so eventually I parked my car on the infield at Goddards (the last corner going into the pit straight) and watched second practice from there. In first practice Marcel was sixth fastest and sixth again in the second. Quite a few cars came off at Goddards in the wet conditions -- Jean Alesi came off at least three times! -- so it was good fun but hard to get an idea of who was on form. "Donington is one of my favourite tracks," said Marcel. "I'm optimistic for qualifying, the car is good here both in the wet and the dry, so either way it should be okay."

Saturday

Qualifying was dry and this time we parked ourselves at Redgate (first corner) so we could see the big screen and keep up with the times. Marcel set the fourth fastest time on his flying lap in the super-pole but was demoted to fifth by Abt's Mattias Ekström. "It was not a bad result," he said. "But I made a couple of small mistakes, so it could have been better. But from fifth there's every chance of a good result."

Sunday

Marcel made a brilliant start in the race, jumping to third off the grid behind Jean Alesi and Bernd Schneider. He was very close with the two ahead and could have tried to get past but didn't want to risk it so early in the race. "The car was very good, very fast," he said. "But to try overtaking Schneider would have been risky so I was hoping the pit stops would work out well."

It didn't really happen so well though -- the first stop was okay and put Marcel back in third place but he had wanted to stop earlier. However, teammate Alesi stopped first, naturally him being the leader was more important. The second stop saw Marcel back to fourth behind Ekström, where he fought hard to get past the Audi as well as keep Christijan Albers behind him.

Marcel finished fourth, which he was not terribly happy about but at least he retains his third place in the championship. "It was disappointing after such a good start," he said. "I can't say I'm happy about the result but overall five points is good for my position in the championship. My tyres were not so good at the end and I had to fend off Albers."

I did an interview with Marcel on the Saturday, which you can find on the News page -- my apologies for the delays on reports but a) I couldn't plug my laptop in with various problems and b) I was too busy working and enjoying myself! Brilliant weekend!