Darren Manning Portland column

The weekend started well, because we didn't spend all of Friday getting the basics right. That was the benefit of testing at Portland back in April, but it was still disappointing to have the rain throughout practice, because we could have used the extra track time. We didn't find a good set-up until the last few laps of qualifying.

The best thing is that we made some good progress with the car in terms of making it suit my driving style. It was a bit of a breakthrough, and we could have been on the second row if I'd been able to do my flying laps when my tyres were at their best.

I managed to pass Ryan Hunter-Reay and Oriol Servia at the start, and I thought about having a go at Alex Tagliani, but if I'd done a big lunge, we might have touched. I was a bit disappointed about what happened with Servia. He went straight down the escape road at the first turn and rejoined right in front of me. He had been behind me going into the chicane, so I can't understand why he wasn't penalised or at least put behind me.

Apart from that, the race was good. The car ran well, we had good pit-stops and we got some points, moving us back into the top 10 in the standings. We have a test at Mid-Ohio coming up this week that should help us continue to make progress with the car.