Just prior to Qualifying there had been a heavy downpour.  Oliver went out at the start of the session, despite the track being extremely wet, and initially set competitive times well within the top eight.  However, as the track started to dry towards the end of the 14 minute session, Oliver struggled to improve and dropped down the order which was rapidly changing due to the drying conditions.  Despite his efforts to continually push until the chequered flag, he narrowly missed out on Qualifying 2 by less than 1 tenth of a second. 

“It goes without saying that Qualifying was extremely disappointing and we as a team had expected much more, but for some reason, I was struggling for grip especially in the braking zones which we later put down to tyre over-heating,” explained Oliver.

Having qualified in an uncharacteristic 17^th place, Oliver had all the work to do at the start of the race.   Luck seemed to go against the 25 year old from Cambridgeshire who, having made a good start, was the victim of a collision caused by Czech driver, Tomas Kostka spinning into him in the opening lap forcing Oliver into retirement.

“The race was over very quickly for me,” says Oliver.  “In the chicane I kept a tight line in and got a good exit with a view to passing several cars into the last turn.  However, Kostka had run wide on the exit of the chicane and as I was very nearly passed him, he spun on the dirty track and slid across to clip my right rear, damaging the suspension and spinning me into the wall.  There was so much damage, I was unable to continue and my race was over.”