Northern Irish racer William Buller produced an encouraging display on his debut in the F1 support series GP3, despite failing to score during the opening round of the weekend at Catalunya.

Will, originally from Scarva and now based in Northamptonshire, produced one of the drives of the weekend in the second race to come from the back of the field to finish inside the top ten after a technical issue in race one had robbed him of a points scoring finish.

Driving for the same Carlin team that is running him in the F3 Euroseries this season, Will’s weekend started well with the twelfth quickest time in practice although he had to settle for 14th on the grid after a small error in the closing stages of qualifying saw him spin into the gravel on what was set to be his quickest lap.

Despite Catalunya being a circuit where overtaking is regarded as being far from easy, Will was in impressive form when the lights went out for the opening 16 lap race, quickly making up places to run inside the top ten.

Moving up into the top eight, Will was well placed to pick up points on his first GP3 appearance before a battery issue shortly after a mid-race safety car period caused his car to come to a halt on track. Although able to restart, he took the chequered flag as the final classified finisher down in 23rd place.

Starting in 23rd for race two as a result, Will was aware of the need to pick up places early on and a stunning opening lap saw him make up no fewer than 11 places before the start of lap two.

A storming drive saw Will climb up to ninth place before he showed huge maturity to produce a performance that was described by one commentator as a master class in defensive driving to keep a charging Kevin Ceccon at bay through the closing laps.

While the need to defend meant Will was unable to challenge Carlin team-mate Alex Brundle for the final points scoring position, he took the chequered flag having made up a hugely impressive 14 places during the race to showcase his speed at the wheel of the GP3 machine.

“Unfortunately I made a mistake in qualifying and ended the session in the gravel, which put me on the back foot for the two races,” he said. “However, my pace in both races was good and if hadn’t been for the battery issue in race one, we’d have come away from the weekend with some good points.

“It looked like I was going to be starting near the front for race two, but after the battery problem I was right at the back and I knew that I had to push in the first lap to try and make up places. I hurt my tyres a little through the opening laps and it meant that as the race went on I had to defend hard to keep Ceccon behind me as he was really quick towards the end. Although it’d disappointing not to have scored, coming from the back of the field to finish inside the top ten is still a good result and showed my pace.

“The boys at Carlin did a great job on my first weekend in GP3 and I’m happy with my race pace. I just need to have a look at qualifying to make sure I get the best out of the tyres in future, especially for the next GP3 meeting in Monaco where overtaking is so difficult.”