After a slump in form the past few rounds, Marcus Armstrong finally rediscovered his grove with a podium drive in the second Formula 2 race of the weekend at Silverstone.
Now, the young Kiwi is hungry for more.
Armstrong did benefit from starting on the front row for the second sprint race, with grid positions determined by reversing the top ten of yesterday’s opener.
Still, the DAMS driver made a fantastic effort to maintain his position across the entire race.
While he says he would have preferred the win, he is jubilant after claiming his first podium amid a tough year.
“It’s been a while, but it’s great to spray the champagne again,” Armstrong said.
“We ran into a few issues in Monaco and also in Baku. So, it is a podium that’s been taking its time.
“I would have preferred the middle step and I genuinely thought it was possible seeing as Richard [Verschoor] didn’t have a very good start this morning.”
Armstrong was pressured over the race by Britain’s Dan Ticktum, who is infamously a challenging driver to keep behind.
Despite Ticktum nestled within the DRS range of Armstrong, the Kiwi was able to resist any attack.
“Dan was quick, and I knew he would be because he was quick in the first race this morning,” he said.
“He’s very quick in the high-speed corners it seems, and he managed to be very close to me the entire race, always within my DRS.”
Armstrong will start 14th for the points-heavy feature race after a disappointing qualifying on Friday.
However, he believes that earning a podium overnight and finally ditching that monkey off his back means he has a new wave of confidence for the rest of the season.
“[The car] was strong yesterday, but I ran into a few issues, and we couldn’t extract all the performance.
“But I genuinely feel we should be a lot further up the grid than what we’ve shown so far.
“Going to circuits like Sochi and Monza where I’ve had great success in the past it gives me a lot of confidence.”
The F2 feature race is scheduled to start at 9.45 pm NZT.