Northern Irish racer William Buller bounced back from a difficult start to his Nurburgring weekend to secure a fourth podium finish of the F3 Euroseries season – maintaining his championship challenge in the process.

The 19-year-old from Scarva went into the event eager to try and maintain the form that had seen him stand on the podium three times in the previous six races, which included taking his maiden win in the Euroseries at the Red Bull Ring back in June.

The weekend started with William tenth quickest in the pre-event test sessions as he struggled with the balance of his car, and he then posted the sixth quickest time in qualifying to secure a place on the third row of the grid for the final race of the weekend. Not only did that make him the quickest of the three drivers within his Carlin team, it also made William the fastest Volkswagen racer on the grid.

His second quickest time in the session, used to determine his position for Saturday’s first race, saw William line up in ninth spot when the lights went out for the opening 29 lap encounter of the weekend. Still struggling with the balance of his car, William held position until the closing stages before losing a place to Tom Blomqvist. Although he therefore crossed the line in tenth spot, the fact that two drivers ahead weren’t registered for points meant Williams secured the four championship points on offer to eighth place.

Starting from tenth for the second race, William repeated his result from earlier in the day to pick up the final point, with his Carlin team then working hard overnight to make changes to his Dallara-Volkswagen for the final race of the weekend.

With a vastly improved car for Sunday, William went into the final race of the weekend hoping to build on his third row start and he avoided a number of clashes ahead to quickly move up to third place.

Inheriting second when Daniel Juncadalla was handed a drive-through for his part in the first lap chaos, William then produced a measured drive to clinch second place – well clear of a three-car battle for third behind.

William ends the weekend sitting fourth in the championship standings, although he is only 21.5 points behind points leader Juncadella heading to Zandvoort this coming weekend for the second of back-to-back meetings.

“It’s a bit of weird feeling at the end of the weekend if I’m being honest,” William reflected. “On the one hand, I was disappointed at how the weekend started with qualifying and the first two races, but on the other, I’m pleased to have come back from it and secured a podium finish that keeps me right in the mix for the championship heading to Zandvoort.

“At the start of the weekend we were struggling with the balance of the car and were on the back-foot a bit compared to our rivals. It was good to be the fastest Volkswagen driver and the quickest of the Carlin men in qualifying but again, I’d hoped to be higher up the grid than I was considering how quick we had been before the summer break.

“It was important to score points in the first two races and the team did a fantastic job to improve the car for race three. I kept out of trouble and even though we didn’t quite have the pace to match the leader, I was able to comfortably stay ahead of the battle behind and second place is a good result for the championship.

“We were playing catch-up a bit when the weekend started but we’ve worked hard and ended it strongly. Now we have to try and build on the podium finish when we get to Zandvoort.”