Hillspeed’s Thursday pace-setter Dante Vinci admits he was pleased to start his GB3 weekend at Spa-Francorchamps on top of the times.
The young Australian set a best time that was over 1.8 seconds quicker than the best pole time last year, and over three seconds faster than the existing race lap record.
While confident he can carry on the form, he was also acknowledges his move towards the top of the times has come after a lot of effort behind the scenes.
“I’m pleased, but it’s just the hard work coming together,” he said at the end of the first day. “Obviously it’s only testing so we’ve got to maintain it. We’ve got to look at what happened in that last session [where he was 17th quickest] just to start on the right foot tomorrow.
“But with all the testing at Spa, Red Bull Ring, Barcelona last year, but also the testing we had this year at the British tracks, Brands Hatch and Donington for example, we were really fast. We just sometimes lacked the opportunity to actually show it.
“But now it’s a European track and I’m used to the European scene, and I’m looking forward to the European leg itself, because I tend to have a liking more for European tracks.”
For Vinci, the move forward in headline pace this weekend hasn’t been a huge surprise, having also shown promising form at the Silverstone season opener.
“At Silverstone the pace was really good, as I think I said on my interview on YouTube after race three, I said that qualifying makes that huge difference and qualifying didn’t go well. So the weekend was really difficult throughout.
“Also in a very small way, FREC is here [at Spa] and that was kind of a thing that was quite common when I was racing in Italian F4. So it’s kind of that certainty as well as having another championship that’s known to me, which makes a very small difference mentally.”
He’s also enjoyed driving the upgraded GB3 car around one of the world’s most legendary venues.
“It’s definitely been nice, Pouhon is a lot nicer. That’s a big challenge this year as well compared to last year. But it is nicer with the new engine too and also with the longer gear ratios compared to the testing we had earlier this season.”
The event this weekend features a change from a normal GB3 event with qualifying taking place on Friday evening as opposed to Saturday morning. But Vinci reckons that could also play into his hands.
“Throughout all of last year, pretty much most of my qualis were on the Friday so I’m kind of used to it at this point!
“But we’ve started on the right foot and typically we tend to go quite well when we start on the right foot so we will see.
“We need to keep on focusing on our job, the team has done a great job today with getting the car ready and having a good car. So we will see how tomorrow goes, but it’s just about doing the same process and getting the job done.”