Today was well and truly a transit day. We had to cover almost 700km to St Petersburg and we drove most of it on motorways.
Although we had a long drive, ironically we had more time for a lunch break today than on any other day so far. We had to wait for 1.5 hours in Veliky Novgorod before we were officially allowed to check out at the time control. Leaving earlier would have given us penalty points. As we’re in a close fight with the Ferrari for 51st position Mario wanted to wait. This gave us time to walk around and to even go to a proper sit down restaurant for lunch.
Mario did all the driving up until the test around the racetrack. He thought he should better drive the test because the steering is a bit too stiff at the moment, but I put my foot down. I speeded into the first corner but Mario was telling me to brake, drive to the apex, shift and turn all at once. I was so confused that I ended up going straight and into some tires. They luckily didn’t have any concrete in them and rolled right onto the track, slowing everyone else down. As soon as the lap was finished, Mario said that he would continue driving to our hotel on the outskirts of St Petersburg.
We finally got lucky today as we had separate bedrooms. All the teams have to share a room as the hotels aren’t big enough for everyone to get their own, but every so often the organization hands out a second one. As Mario doesn’t need any sleep and usually wakes me up before 06:00, I was looking forward to the prospect of a little lie in.