By alley - Jun 23, 2015, 12:49 PM ET

Santino Ferrucci's diary: Gaining ground at Spa

After a nice one week vacation at home, it was time to get back to work at the famous Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium. This race marked my one-year anniversary to FIA European F3 and single-seater racing. It is also the first time I am racing at a track which I have raced before. I really enjoy mixed challenges of this fantastic four-mile, extremely fast circuit.

After a two-hour track walk on Thursday, I was ready to rock Friday practice. We had a rather unique delay on Friday morning when the circuit workers went on strike! Going on strike is getting to be normal in Germany because an airline, the postal service and train workers have all gone on strike lately. Lucky for us the strike was over just before lunchtime. Our time was cut to one 60-minute session from two 40 minute sessions. I wasn't very satisfied with my driving performance during practice, sitting about 12th.

My first of two qualifying sessions were next and there wasn't much time to debrief. First qualifying was actually pretty good and ending up eighth was nice, considering I made a pass on the last corner that cost me quite some time. Even though the circuit is four miles long, with 35 or so cars and only 20 minutes and an approximate 2m11s lap, there isn't much time.

The car felt really good so my engineer, Ralf Drunkenmueller, and I decided not to change much. In Qualifying Two we had a wet track with a dry line and it was getting a lot faster as the session went on. Unfortunately on my fastest lap, the track went red just before I could finish up the second sector, already seven tenths up on my previous time when I was eighth. I was a bit disappointed but a couple of others lost their laps so I would start race two from sixth. My second-best lap was an out-lap due to another red flag shortening the session. I was late getting back out because we needed to make aerodynamic adjustments to the car. So for Race Three I was going to start 13th and after penalties 11th.

In Race One the track was similar to qualifying session two, a damp circuit with a dry line. I got off to a great start, up to sixth and I passed two more cars late in the race to end up fourth, with third right in front of me, and easily set the fastest lap of the race! This would turn out to be a very calm and long race as compared to the next two...

Later on Saturday was Race Two and the track was fully dry. I had a really good start and was up to fifth by lap three and the car was on rails. We were a breakaway pack of five and I was going to pass for fourth this lap.

Going up the back straight, the leaders went three wide and one brilliant driver decided to pinch the two cars on his left entering a very fast right-left complex known as Les Combes. Needless to say they had a huge crash! That driver's move – and not his first leap of faith this year – was so awful the FIA banned him on Sunday, a ban which was seriously overdue. You would think he would have learned after he decided to make an equally bad decision at Monza and turn his F3 into a flying Dallara.

Now I was in second and my car was handling really well, much better that the leader. Unfortunately, on our third green-flag lap after the caution the safety car was again brought out. There was another massive crash in the middle of the pack on the same back straight when another questionable move sent a

car flying through the air for 300 feet

. I will say we should all be thankful to Dallara for such a strong and safe car. The green flag would not come back out and the race ended under yellow so I secured second – my first FIA European F3 podium (LEFT).

Sunday's Race Three was a tricky one. The track was damp – no dry line at all to start – and there wasn't enough water for wet tires but some drivers did give wets a go with early success. I went with slicks, as did 90% of the field, hoping that it wouldn't rain, knowing the track would dry.

After the lights went out I was off to a really good start with no wheelspin already passing cars but I didn't even make it around Turn 1 before a car from way back hit me in the rear, making me spin. The rookie ran out of talent trying to go from zero to hero in Le Source (Turn 1), hitting a few drivers along the way into the first brake zone before he T-boned me. Now, from what would have been about ninth out of Turn 1 to last – 31st. Even one of my teammates who started from the pit lane passed me!

I was now on a mission to come in the top-10 for a few points. After a lot of passing and a yellow for some small crashes I made it back to 12th. I flat-spotted at least three of my tires pushing so hard and unfortunately I wasn't unable to get any points, but I'm sure it would have been possible if we had a few more green laps as my car was just getting better.

Overall it was a very solid weekend and I am very happy with the results, moving into the top-10 in overall points. A big thanks to my engineer Ralf, driver coach Euan Hankey, Jo Zeller Racing and the entire Mucke Motorsport team for a good car. Also a big thanks to my sponsors – Eastern Account System, Cly-Del Manufacturing, Alpinestars, Arai Helmets, and Brett King Design.

I can't wait for Norisring next weekend, as that is where I got my first rookie podiums and top-fives in 2014!

-Santino