Australian Joey Mawson endured a difficult weekend during Round Seven of the 2018 GP3 Series at Monza in Italy.

With the opening practice session being rained out, the PODIUM-backed driver went into qualifying aiming for the top ten.

Unfortunately Mawson was unable to get a slipstream around the high-speed circuit, which left him battling for an outright lap time, and he was only able to set the 15th fastest time.

“Qualifying was a real challenge, I couldn’t quite find the right space to get a slipstream. If I had been able to get a tow I think I would have been inside the top ten but it wasn’t to be,” said Mawson.

In the opening race Mawson edged his way forward to cross the line in 12th place.

During the early laps of race two, Mawson also made his way forward to be knocking on the door of another top ten result. Unfortunately, contact with another competitor mid-race caused damage to his suspension and he was forced to battle an ill-handling car for the remainder of the race. He would eventually cross the line 15th, this would later be elevated to 12th following some post-race penalties to other competitors.

“It was a difficult weekend, we just couldn’t find the speed we needed,” said Mawson.

“After qualifying 15th we were behind the eight-ball and chasing ourselves.

“I managed to move up a few spots in race one and the same thing in the early laps of race two. I then had a coming together with another competitor that damaged my wishbone and made the car a bit of a handful to drive.

“To be able to race at Monza on the Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend was an amazing experience, unfortunately the results weren’t what we were aiming for.

“We’ve now got a couple of weeks to regroup and finish the year off strong in Russia and Abu Dhabi.”

David Beckman and Pedro Piquet won the weekend’s races while Anthoine Hubert remains in the lead of the Championship.