Robertson delighted with fourth consecutive points-scoring finish but admits there’s more to learn

Rachel Robertson was beaming after her seventh-place finish in the Feature Race, adding nine points to her tally in Zandvoort.

It was a promising start to the weekend after the PUMA driver qualified in sixth and lined up in third for the Reverse Grid Race. Losing out to Nina Gademan at Turn 1, Robertson lost out further later in the race after Emma Felbermayr squeezed her on to gravel and eventually finished in P6.

The Briton lost out at the start once again in the Feature Race and found herself stuck in a train of drivers for the remainder of the 17-lap race, taking the chequered flag in seventh.

“It was definitely one of those tracks where if you can make any moves on the first laps, especially the first corner of the first lap, then you can actually do something,” she began.

“Whereas when the race settles down, no driver I saw could really make any progress. I found that if I made a mistake on a corner, I could easily make that time back. But once I was behind that next car, then it was really difficult to find a space and actually gain time.”

Extending her points-scoring streak to four races, this marks a continued upward trajectory for the PUMA driver who failed to score points in the opening two rounds at Shanghai and Montreal.

Collecting 22 points from the last two weekends in Silverstone and Zandvoort, Robertson credits her improved performance to the experience of racing against this season’s toughest competitors.

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“It was always there,” she said. “It was just a case of actually putting something together and being able to work off some consistency instead of thinking maybe we will just give it another weekend because we don't actually know what the problem is because I’m driving all over the place and not actually getting something put together.

“Even with the races, it uncovers a lot of the lack of racecraft I have in these cars. Now I’m starting at the front, I’m with a higher calibre of drivers who have got more experience and who are used to fighting these drivers at the front as well.

“I’m coming along and then I’m late to the party to learn how they drive as well. It’s really good to be able to do that two weekends in a row now and gain more learning and experience from these drivers.”

Robertson added: “It’s really good to watch the cars in front. Especially as well because I didn't score points in the first two rounds, so I actually don't have anything to lose.

“I can watch the drivers who do and now are in that pressured situation of we have only got two rounds left and they are actually needing to fight for these last few points. Being able to watch how they move the car, how they try and pressure the car in front of them, what move they actually try to make stick and what move they do a dummy to the car in front, that's really interesting for me to learn from them.”

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Robertson's thoughts now turn to Round 5 and her first appearance at the Circuit of the Americas. Similar to Montreal, the Briton won’t have the chance to test there beforehand, but she believes that inexperience will be a good opportunity to truly judge her progress.

“I think it will be really fun,” she said. “It’s a new track for everyone. It’s also a really long track, it’s super wide. It's almost like Silverstone but even longer. You have different types of corners, different elevations and cambers. It will be really exciting to get to the track and see how all the drivers cope with that.

“It again puts everyone on that same level, so it will actually really show (whether we) have developed, where have we developed and how much we have developed. It will be really good to actually put that to the test.”