Disappointment for Abbi Pulling in the second round of the GB3 Championship at Zandvoort

Abbi Pulling was remaining positive despite a challenging weekend in the second round of the GB3 Championship.

Pulling had gone into the race weekend at Zandvoort - the home of the Dutch Grand Prix - upbeat after a promising start to the campaign.

However, the reigning F1 Academy champion was unable to break into the top 10 in each of the three races after a difficult meeting.

Pulling said: "It was a hard weekend in the office.

"I just didn't put the car where I think it was capable of - especially after the strong performance of Silverstone - but you learn more from days like these.

"I ended up qualifying in 13th place which is where I had to start every race.

"I was struggling a bit with overall grip throughout the weekend and just missed out on the top-10 in the second and third races.

"But, looking forward, I will be working hard on things I can improve on myself, alongside what we can do to make the car a bit more comfortable and get back to the results we have shown we are capable of."

Following Friday’s Testing, Pulling got herself up to speed by acclimatising with the faster and higher downforce Rodin Motorsport machinery, compared to the F1 Academy and British F4 car from last season.

The first of the two 15-minute qualifying sessions saw the Gosberton driver's first flying lap put her inside the top 10 before a red flag came out before she could further improve.

The session restarted with five minutes to go, enough for two flying laps which saw the former Bourne Academy pupil finish 13th on the timesheet.

Qualifying two took place just 20 minutes later, with small time for set-up changes and run-plans.

Pulling was able to improve on the lap time she set in the first session – once again finishing 13th, just outside of the reverse-grid pole position slot.

Race one on Saturday afternoon was initially disrupted with an aborted start where the race was shortened by two minutes.

Pulling had a difficult opening lap, struggling to generate tyre temperature and dropped to 16th.

Lap six would see Pulling move up to 15th and then she gained another position just one lap later.

The 22-year-old would hold this position to the chequered flag, finishing the opening race in 14th.

Race two on Sunday morning saw Pulling embroiled in an early battle, putting up a robust defence, followed by a bold re-passing manoeuvre to maintain 13th.

As the race approached half distance, Pulling had closed in for the battle for 12th and wasn't far away from the top 10 positions.

She finished 13th at the flag, despite closing in on the battle ahead with good tyre management, finishing just 1.7 seconds off 10th.

The third and final race of the weekend, starting once again from 13th, Pulling made a good start in a frantic opening pair of laps, dicing with team-mate Alex Ninovic but ultimately retaining position, before the safety car was deployed at the start of lap three.

The race resumed on lap six where Pulling had small contact with a rival on the exit of turn one before the safety car was once again called due to a three-car pile-up at Hugenholtz Corner.

Pulling resumed the race in 11th with just over two minutes to go.

She chased down her rival ahead but narrowly missed out on a top 10 finish by 0.4 seconds at the chequered flag.

Pulling will be back in action for the next round of the GB3 Championship at Spa-Francorchamps on May 30-June 1.

It will be her first-ever time racing at the track in Stavelot, Belgium.