Joshua Duerksen’s Spielberg Weekend in his Words

AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen left the Red Bull Ring fairly pleased with his efforts across a promising race weekend for the team. After missing out on Pole Position by just 0.008s to MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger, he secured points in both races to cap off a momentum-building couple of days in Spielberg.
Here is what the AIX man made of his Austrian experience.
“Practice was quite good. Luckily, Red Bull Ring is a track with fairly low degradation, so it allowed us to do many laps to better understand the car and get up to speed, get a better feel and improve the driving. So to be honest I think Practice went OK.
“I was P8, the gap was still a bit too big, but it was quite decent overall to be honest. We knew what to do better so Practice went pretty well for us.”
“Qualifying was really great. So close. Eight thousandths of a second, that’s so close, literally just getting on power half a meter earlier. The car was in a really good window, it felt really good and I felt comfortable with the Supersoft tyres. I think I could’ve got pole. Eight-thousandths is nothing. It shows that the car was really strong in Qualifying, and I was extremely happy to get that result.”
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“I got one point which is nice. The Sprint Race was okay. I think we were a bit stronger in Qualifying trim than on race pace, but we were still able to get one point in the Sprint Race so that’s better than nothing.
“We learned a lot on what to do better for the Feature Race which was in the end the most important race for me.”
“I saw him not go and I thought, ‘Okay this is my Pole Position moment now’. With Dennis not being there, I basically started from Pole and it was a bit of an easier start for me because I knew I had nobody in front to worry about. I just needed to make a good start and I would keep the position, which I did.
“I had a good start, managed to keep P1 in the first couple of laps but then the tyre degradation started, and I couldn’t keep up with Bortoleto and the other guys.
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“I think we maximised what we could in this race. I still finished P6 after the penalties of the other drivers, so that’s good points. Of course, I’d have liked to be on the podium, but Qualifying was mega, it was exceptional.
“In Qualifying I was able to maximise everything along with the Feature Race as well. I think we still have some work to do on race pace with the car, but overall, I’m happy because both Taylor and I were able to score some points, so it’s good for the team.
“I’m looking forward to just keep on improving because to be honest, I wasn’t expecting to be this far ahead with my development in F2 by mid-season. Having a podium already, Taylor winning in Monaco, almost a Pole Position here. We’re showing great improvement and of course, we want to keep going like this in the second half of the season and get that Feature Race win.”
“It’s a track I love but I’ve never driven there in real life yet. I’ve only driven it on the simulator. I love the high-speed corners so I think it’s going to be a track that really suits me and will fit me and my driving style. I’m pretty sure we’ll have some good racing there as well.”